Florida suspends doctor’s license after fatal surgery that removed wrong organ

A Florida surgeon’s license was suspended last week after he allegedly removed the wrong organ from a patient, resulting in the man’s death.

Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, who works at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital near Fort Walton Beach, made repeated surgical errors, then fabricated medical records, according to a Sept. 24 emergency order from the Florida surgeon general made available through the patient’s lawyer.

“Dr. Shaknovsky claimed he blindly pulled the stapler into his abdomen and removed an organ he believed to be a spleen,” state Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo said in the order.

Instead, Shaknovsky removed the man’s liver and may have ruptured at least one artery, causing uncontrolled bleeding, according to the order and several news reports.

After the surgery and death in August, the Florida Department of Health investigated.

“Witnesses in the operating room have consistently and clearly given a summary of events that is far more troubling than Dr. Shaknovsky’s written account of what happened,” Ladapo’s order states.

Patient William Bryan, 70, of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, reluctantly agreed to the surgery after experiencing pain in his abdomen while visiting his rental property in the Florida Panhandle. Shaknovsky and another Alabama doctor warned that complications would occur if the spleen was not removed, the Miami Herald reported.

Bryan’s widow has hired Pensacola attorney Joe Zarzaur, who plans to file a lawsuit against the surgeon and the hospital system.

This is not the first time Shaknovsky has removed the wrong side during surgery, the command notes. In May 2023, at the same Florida hospital, the surgeon removed part of a 58-year-old patient’s pancreas in place of an adrenal gland that had a growth on it.

The hospital, part of a Catholic health system with hospitals in 18 states, said in a statement it was investigating. The system has a history of safe and quality care, hospital officials said, according to the news release.

The suspension order from Dr. Ladapo raised its own questions. Lapado, appointed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has come under fire in recent months for repeated misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.

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