Florida Doctor Charged After Allegedly Removing Wrong Organ During Surgery

Fox News ^ | April 14, 2026 | Brittany Miller

[nickcarraway]

Dr Thomas Shaknovsky indicted for second-degree manslaughter after prosecutors allege he removed a patient's liver instead of his spleen SNIP

The Office of the State Attorney for the First Judicial Circuit in Florida announced in a release Monday that Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky was charged with second-degree manslaughter after he allegedly removed the liver from 70-year-old Bill Bryan of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, in 2024 during a procedure at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital in Miramar Beach, Florida. Prosecutors allege the surgery was scheduled to be a laparoscopic splenectomy, a minimally invasive procedure used to remove the spleen, but the removal of Bryan's liver resulted in "catastrophic blood loss and the patient’s death on the operating table."

A Walton County grand jury said the surgeon's actions in the operating room "constituted criminal conduct under Florida law."

"Our duty is to follow the facts wherever they lead, without fear or favor," Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson said in a news release. "The Grand Jury has spoken, and our responsibility is to ensure the charges are carried out through the proper legal process. Our thoughts remain with the victim’s family and their unspeakable loss." Available court records did not list an attorney for Shaknovsky. It is unclear whether he has retained legal representation.

[citizen]

Next question: did the doc get the spleen, too? The spleen was the object of the exercise.

Probably not; by that time he was likely just trying to keep the patient alive, the article mentions massive blood loss.

[Secret Agent Man]

They have removed wrong feet, wrong legs, wrong hands, wrong arms, wrong eyes, wrong toes, wrong fingers, wrong ears.

[CaptainK]

If my long-term memory is still functional, when this story broke think there was a freeper who had gone to this Doctor. They were shocked by the news.

[JayGalt]

Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky
Prior Incidents: In 2023, Dr. Shaknovsky was accused of removing part of a patient's pancreas instead of an adrenal gland.
Medical License Status: Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo ordered an emergency suspension of Dr. Shaknovsky’s license on September 24, 2024.
Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky is an osteopathic physician (DO) who graduated from the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine at Midwestern University in 2009. He completed his residency training at Palisades Medical Center/Hackensack University Medical Center

Details about the operating room disaster at link. Much more complex than suggested. https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/112209

[citizen]

Laproscopic....that’s a small incision procedure, right? By the time he realized it’s not the spleen he’s removing through that small incision, it was probably too late.

[JayGalt]

https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/112209
Many inter-op complications.

[A strike]

If possible it is best to have at least three or more medically knowledgeable family members involved to the maximum extent possible in a serious surgery..

[citizen]

What a horror story! Maybe it’s a 1-in-10,000 occurrence but it still scares the crap out of me.

[Presbyterian Reporter]

“”””What I don’t understand....this is an OR full of people. The surgeon(s), anesthesiologists, nurses...idk, orderlies and so forth. There has to be a chart or a monitor or something listing the procedure. And they’re all just standing there watching the lead surgeon remove a liver instead of a spleen??

Sure, it’s on the doc but imo, the facility is also to blame for sloppy operating protocols.””””

---

I agree. I was recently in the hospital for a minor procedure. Before the procedure began, the head operating nurse detailed what the doctor was going to do while I was still awake.

You are right. The hospital will be facing a major malpractice lawsuit.

[dfwgator]

Whoops!

[dfwgator]

[JayGalt]

IMO the patient was not adequately evaluated pre-op. How could a megacolon be a surprise? No CT?
In non-trauma situations, patients for whom a splenectomy is recommended usually have significant medical issues: cancer, painful enlarged spleen, hematologic disorders ec, and an extensive workup is done to evaluate the primary disease and to exclude other issues before surgery.

[dfwgator]

[JayGalt]

Luckily the Freeper fared better than this patient.

[plain talk]

Oh man. This doctor was a mess.

“The Florida court order to suspend Shaknovsky’s license revealed he had previously made similar mistakes and lied to cover them up.

In May 2023, he removed a portion of a patient’s pancreas instead of the adrenal gland.

When the surgeon was approached about the mistake, he claimed the adrenal gland had “migrated” to a different part of the body.”

[Pontiac]

The liver is massive compared to the spleen.

The liver is huge compared to the spleen and it is also very solid when compared to the spleen.

The liver has two lobes and neither one could be removed laparoscopically in one piece.

This why I believe the entire operating team should be held responsible for this tragedy.

The team had to know that the operation being performed was not the operation they had be briefed to perform.

Someone on the team should have stopped this operation.

[The Sentient Sheep]

So no one else like the surgical nurse noticed that the surgeon was making a big mistake ?

[nickcarraway]

Do you think some of them were scared to contradict a doctor?

[nickcarraway]

“The Florida court order to suspend Shaknovsky’s license revealed he had previously made similar mistakes and lied to cover them up.

The court should be considered accomplices. They obviously shouldn't have given him a 4th or 5th, or whatever it was chance.

Maybe he can become a mob doctor. It might give him the proper motivation not to make a mistake.

[SmokingJoe]

The earlier Musk's Optimus humanoid robots take over most surgeries the better.