(StraightShooterNews.com) – An Alabama man died during a surgical procedure in Florida when his liver was mistakenly removed by a doctor who tried to claim it was an “enlarged spleen.”
William Bryan and his wife Beverly were checking on their rental property in Okaloosa County, Florida, when William suddenly felt severe pain in his lower left abdomen.
According to Zarzaur Law P.A.’s Facebook post, the 70-year-old man was taken to Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital in Walton County for testing, which raised concerns about his spleen.
At the hospital, Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Christopher Bacani convinced the Bryan family that William needed surgery immediately to avoid serious health issues.
Bryan agreed and underwent a hand-assisted laparoscopic splenectomy on August 21.
During the operation, Shaknovsky mistakenly removed William’s liver, causing “immediate and catastrophic blood loss resulting in death,” the law firm stated.
After removing the liver, the surgeon misidentified it as a “spleen.” It was only correctly identified after Bryan’s death.
Shaknovsky then told Beverly Bryan 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.”
Normally, the liver is located in the upper right side of the abdomen and is much larger than the spleen, which is on the upper left side and about the size of a fist.
Zarzaur Law also mentioned that Dr. Shaknovsky was involved in another surgical error in 2023.
Shaknovsky removed part of a patient’s pancreas instead of the adrenal gland, and the case was settled confidentially.
Seeking justice, Beverly Bryan has hired the law firm to ensure Shaknovsky does not practice medicine on other patients.
“My husband died while helpless on the operating room table by Dr. Shaknovsky. 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,” Beverly stated through her lawyers.
She is pursuing both civil and criminal legal actions concerning her husband’s death.
It was later discovered that William Bryan’s spleen had a small cyst, which was likely the source of his pain.
Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital is currently investigating the incident and expressed that “patient safety is and remains [its] number one priority.”
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