General Surgeon Dr. Thomas Shakvovsky, who mistakenly removed the liver of a 70-year-old man, leading to his “immediate, catastrophic death,” had his medical license suspended last week, the New York Post reports.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo accused Shakvovsky of “repeated egregious surgical errors” and “egregious conduct fabricating medical records” in relation to the death of William Bryan on August 21 in an emergency order filed last Tuesday (September 24). The surgeon was a practicing Osteopathic Physician at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital in Walton, County, Florida, at the time of the fatal accident.
Bryan, of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, was admitted to the hospital for further tests over concerns regarding an abnormality of the spleen after experiencing sudden lower left abdominal pain while he and his wife, Beverly, were visiting their rental property in Okaloosa County, according to Zarzaur Law P.A., which is representing Beverly. Shaknovsky and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Christpher Bacani persuaded Bryan to undergo surgery as he “could experience serious complications if he left the hospital” despite the family’s reluctance, according to the law firm.
“On August 21, 2024, Dr. Shaknovsky proceeded with a hand-assisted laparoscopic splenectomy procedure. During this operation, Dr. Shaknovsky removed Mr. Bryan’s liver and, in so doing, transected the major vasculature supplying the liver, causing immediate and catastrophic blood loss resulting in death,” Zarzaur Law wrote in the caption of a Facebook post shared last month. “The surgeon proceeded with labeling the removed liver specimen as a ‘spleen,’ and it wasn’t until following the death that it was identified that the organ removed was actually Mr. Bryan’s liver, as opposed to the spleen.”
Shaknovsky, mistaking Bryan’s liver for his spleen, told Beverly that her husband’s “‘spleen’ was so diseased that it was four times bigger than usual and had migrated to the other side of (his) body,” according to the law firm. Zarzaur Law claimed that Shaknovsky was previously accused of “wrong-site surgery” in 2023, removing a portion of a patient’s pancreas instead of the intended adrenal gland resection, as part of a case that was settled in confidence.
“My husband died while helpless on the operating room table by Dr. Shaknovsky,” Beverly Bryan said in a statement through the law firm. “I don’t want anyone else to die due to his incompetence at a hospital that should have known or knew he had previously made drastic, life-altering surgical mistakes.”
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