Doctor indicted after removing liver instead of spleen, killing veteran, was practicing medicine for military despite 'egregious' errors, lawyer says

A grand jury in Florida has indicted a doctor who allegedly removed a patient's liver instead of his spleen, leading to the man's death on the operating table because of massive blood loss.

Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, 44, stands accused of negligent manslaughter in the August 2024 death of 70-year-old William Bryan, a Navy veteran from Alabama, who was spending time at his vacation property in the Sunshine State when the fatal surgery occurred, according to the Walton County Sheriff's Office.

The indictment followed an "extensive investigation" by the sheriff's office and prosecutors that concluded that Shaknovsky's actions in the operating room "constituted criminal conduct under Florida law."

Deputies arrested Shaknovsky on Monday and took him to the Walton County Jail on a $75,000 bond.

The botched surgery led to the suspension of Shaknovsky's medical license in both in the Sunshine State and Alabama. But despite the suspensions in two states, Shaknovsky continued to practice medicine for the U.S. military, attorney Joe Zarzaur, who represents the Bryan family in a civil suit filed last year, told Law&Crime in an interview.

"The military system is not tied to any particular state, and I guess he has figured out a way to continue practicing medicine and not disclose what's going on in his civilian life," he said.

Zarzaur said Bryan's widow is relieved that criminal charges have been filed that should stop him from practicing medicine anywhere. The doctor was "as careless as they come."

"You can't accidentally take out someone's liver," he said. "And the reason you can't accidentally take out somebody's liver is that it has more connection points than most any other organ in the body. So when you take out the liver, you have to basically dissect it out carefully, because it has so many different connection points that nobody, even a brand new surgeon, would not know they're taking out the liver."

Zarzaur said Shaknovsky's deposition lasted for some nine hours — and the doctor continues to deny he took out a liver instead of a spleen, even though he had time after the surgery to examine the organ.

"So if he didn't have the intent to take it out during the operation, he certainly knew what he took out was the liver after the operation, and still reported it as the spleen," said Zarzaur.

There was also doubt that criminal charges would ever be brought if investigators had trouble convincing experts to come forward to say what Shaknovsky did was criminal.

"I thought that was a real possibility and I was preparing my client for such, but thankfully that did not happen," Zarzaur said.

The Florida Department of Health filed an emergency order to suspend Shaknovsky's license in September 2024. It concluded that Shaknovsky made "repeated egregious surgical errors resulting in significant patient harm."

"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," Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson said in a statement. "We are committed to seeing this case through with the professionalism and integrity our community expects."

During the surgery — for which the doctor arrived an hour late — Shaknovsky opted to convert a laparoscopic procedure to an open one to mitigate difficulties in visibility. The procedure had major complications and Shaknovsky's decisions proved to be fatal for the patient, according to the report.

After "fir[ing] a stapling device blindly" into Bryan's abdomen, Shaknovsky removed an organ that he "believed" was Bryan's spleen, but was actually the man's liver. According to the suspension order, not only did operating room staff notice Shaknovsky's error during the procedure, but they also observed him trying to cover up his error.

The Department of Health said in its order that Shaknovsky's account of the incident contained, "deceptive and untrue statements," and that Shaknovsky directed a staffer to purposely and incorrectly label Bryan's liver as "spleen" as it was transported to the pathology lab.

In its suspension order, the department said that Shaknovsky's failure to admit his error demonstrated either a "lack of clinical understanding" or a "lack of integrity," and even predicted, "his reckless conduct is likely to continue."

The order also details a botched procedure on another patient in which Shaknovsky allegedly removed pancreatic tissue instead of an adrenal gland that had a mass on it. According to the order, the error caused that patient to suffer "long-term, permanent harm."

As Law&Crime previously reported, Bryan's widow filed a civil lawsuit in Florida state court last year against Shaknovsky and Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast (ASHEC) hospital.

The Bryans, residents of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, were spending time at the family's rental property in Okaloosa County, Florida, when William suddenly began to experience pain in his left flank. The couple went to Ascension Sacred Heart and Bryan was admitted for tests to assess an abnormal spleen. After medical staff advised Bryan that immediate surgery was required to prevent serious spleen-related complications, he agreed to an emergency laparoscopic splenectomy.

The court filing recounts the surgical error and the surgeon's response to it in blunt detail:

During this procedure, Defendant Shaknovsky removed Mr. Bryan's liver and asked for it to be labeled as a "spleen."

Defendant Shaknovsky's removal of Mr. Bryan's liver caused Mr. Bryan's death.

Defendant Shaknovsky did not admit that he had removed Mr. Bryan's liver.

Instead, Defendant Shaknovsky maintained to himself and others around him that he had removed Mr. Bryan's spleen and that Mr. Bryan's cause of death was a splenicartery aneurysm. He repeated this assertion over and over to numerous staff and other physicians who looked at him like he was crazy.

Medical records attached as exhibits show multiple references to  Bryan's "spleen," then later, his "extensive blood loss," blood transfusion, and eventually, cardiac arrest. However, the corresponding  pathology report said that what had been labeled Bryan's spleen had actually been his liver.

Bryan's wrong-site surgery was not Shaknovsky's first mistake, said the filing. Rather, they alleged, the surgeon caused another patient's death the prior year when he accidentally perforated the patient's bowel during a gallbladder removal. Shaknovsky took a leave of absence following that incident, said the complaint.

"By October of 2023, Defendant ASHEC and Defendant Ascension knew or should have known that they had a consistently negligent and dangerous surgeon on its staff who needed to be permanently stripped of his surgical privileges in order to protect the community," asserted the filing. Then, in the next year, Shaknovsky was involved in several other botched surgeries, including a wrong-site hernia surgery, said the filing.

Despite all the warnings, however, the hospital, "allowed Defendant Shaknovsky to continue operating in an unrestricted fashion, in part, because he was making the hospital money," alleged the plaintiffs.

In the complaint, plaintiffs argued that the hospital  knew or should have known that "nurses typically feel uncomfortable in reporting adverse events related to surgeons," and should have developed their safety protocols accordingly.

Further, according to the filing, Shaknovsky was experiencing so many adverse surgical during his first five months at the hospital that complaints were being made by patients to the Florida Department of Health, and that the doctor, "often invoked religious symbols and concepts" in an effort to redirect conversations related to complications after surgeries.

The family asks for unspecified damages over $50,000.

At the time, Zarzaur said in a statement:

This heartbreaking loss has devastated the family of William Bryan, and we are seeking justice for this senseless tragedy. Dr. Shaknovsky's failure to meet the accepted standard of care and Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast's involvement in the alleged cover up has caused irreparable harm, and no family should have to endure such grief due to medical negligence. We are committed to holding these actors accountable for their actions.

You can read the full filing here. The lawsuit remains ongoing.

Elura Nanos contributed to this report