Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, a Florida surgeon, officially had his medical license suspended by the state. Per Fox News, an emergency order from the Florida Department of Health listed a number of reasons for the decision. The order emphasized that a "grievous medical error" had been committed. Additionally, Shaknovsky was viewed as an "immediate, serious danger" to the general public.
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Shaknovsky performed a surgery on Bill Bryan, a 70-year-old Alabama resident. Bryan had a medical emergency while on a vacation with his wife in Florida. He went to the Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital and discovered that he had an enlarged spleen. Bryan and his wife, Beverly, wanted to have a procedure done closer to home. However, Shaknovsky allegedly insisted that the situation was time-sensitive and the surgery had to be done as soon as possible.
Bryan underwent a laparoscopic splenectomy. Allegedly, Shaknovsky removed the wrong organ -- taking out Bryan's liver instead of his spleen. Bryan would die almost immediately of "catastrophic blood loss." Joe Zarzaur, representing Bryan's family, addressed the situation during a press conference. "I have the pleasure of representing Mrs. Bryan and her family. Unfortunately, we represent her in one of the most egregious cases of medical malpractice that I've ever been involved with," Zarzaur stated.
A Florida Surgeon Has His License Suspended After Allegedly Removing The Wrong Organ From A Patient
"The doctors kept suggesting that it was too dangerous to move him. That his spleen could rupture, and they needed to go forward with the procedure," Zarzaur concluded. Reportedly, despite many of the operating room staff believing Shaknovsky "did not have the skill level to safely perform" the "complicated" procedure, it went forward anyway.
Allegedly, Shaknovsky went to "great lengths to cover up his mistake by fabricating medical records, lying about what happened, and pressuring others to lie about what happened." The emergency order even claims that Shaknovsky "lied and gave several different accounts of what happened during the surgery. Finally admitting that at one point during the operation, he fired a stapling device 'blindly' into the abdomen and removed an organ he 'believed to be a spleen.'"
Beverly is seeking criminal and civil proceedings in Bill's wrongful death. If more details are uncovered in the ongoing case, we at Wide Open Country will be sure to inform our readership accordingly.
