Florida Doctor License Suspended For Allegedly Removing The Wrong Organ From A Patient, Resulting In Death

A doctor in Florida has had his medical license suspended after being accused of taking out an Alabama man's liver instead of his spleen, which led to his immediate death, per NY Post.
Photo Credit: Unsplash/ marcelo leal

A doctor in Florida has had his medical license suspended after being accused of taking out an Alabama man’s liver instead of his spleen, which led to his immediate death, per NY Post.

The Florida Surgeon General, Joseph Ladapo, filed an emergency order on September 24, accusing Thomas J. Shakvovsky of

“repeated egregious surgical errors”

and

“egregious conduct of fabricating medical records”

relating to the death of 70-year-old William Bryan on August 21.

Before the incident, Shakvovsky was working as an Osteopathic Physician at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital. Bryan and his wife, Beverly, were in Florida for a visit when he started feeling pain in his lower left abdomen. They went to a hospital in Miramar Beach, where doctors were worried about his spleen and decided to admit him for more tests. However, Bryan refused

“surgical intervention.”

Tests showed a possibly enlarged spleen and some blood in his abdomen, but there were no active hemorrhage reports revealed. According to the order, Shakvovsky kept insisting on a laparoscopic splenectomy (spleen removal surgery) on three consecutive days, even though Bryan wanted to go back home to Alabama. Eventually, Bryan agreed to the surgery after Shakvovsky pointed out a slight drop in his hemoglobin levels, which was only minor during his hospital stay.

The surgery was set for 4 p.m. on August 21, but the operating room staff noted that it was being done with very few professionals available to assist.

“Staff had concerns that Dr. Shaknovsky did not have the skill level to safely perform this procedure,”

the surgeon general’s order noted.

The doctor claims he began to cut the ligaments connecting to what he thought was the spleen. However, it turned out to be the liver. He then found a blood vessel he said he could feel pulsing and used a stapling device to staple the vessel. This resulted in major hemorrhaging and led Bryan to go into cardiac arrest. The hospital staff started suctioning out blood and prepared for an emergency blood transfusion as a

“code”

was called, and they performed CPR.

The staff tried to revive the victim. However, Shakvovsky kept working inside the abdomen without asking for help and ended up removing a 4.6-pound liver.

“The staff looked at the readily identifiable liver on the table and were shocked when Dr. Shaknovsky told them it was the spleen. One staff member ‘felt sick to their stomach,’”

a witness in the operating room said.

Bryan was declared dead, and Shakvovsky stated that he died from a splenic artery aneurysm.

“The staff in the room felt that Dr. Shaknovsky was attempting to convince them that this is what occurred, even though they witnessed something different.”

Bryan’s death was ruled a homicide due to

“liver removed during splenectomy,”

Zarzaur Law P.A., the family’s lawyers wrote on Facebook. Bryan’s family plans to file a malpractice lawsuit.

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