Florida Surgeon Indicted for Manslaughter After Allegedly Removing Patient’s Liver Instead of Spleen

A Walton County, Florida, grand jury has indicted Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, a 44‑year‑old osteopathic physician, on a second‑degree manslaughter charge after prosecutors say he removed a patient’s liver instead of the spleen during a 2024 operation at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital in Miramar Beach. The victim, identified as 70‑year‑old Bill Bryan of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, underwent what began as a scheduled laparoscopic splenectomy that was converted to an open procedure amid uncontrolled hemorrhage and a burst megacolon. Court filings and witness accounts reported that Shaknovsky admitted he “blindly” fired a stapling device at an organ he could not identify; what was removed was later determined to be the liver. He is being held in Walton County Jail on $75,000 bond and, if convicted, faces a maximum sentence of 15 years under Florida law.

Reporting on the case also highlights a troubling prior incident in 2023 in which Shaknovsky is accused of removing part of a patient’s pancreas instead of an adrenal gland and telling colleagues the adrenal had “migrated,” leaving that patient with long‑term harm. Regulators in multiple states have since moved against him: his medical licenses in Florida, Alabama and New York were suspended or surrendered in 2024–25. While most medical mistakes are not criminally prosecuted and experts emphasize that criminal charges are warranted only in cases of sufficient recklessness, this case is being framed by prosecutors and some witnesses as crossing that line. The incident also sits against a broader safety backdrop: surgical errors are estimated to occur thousands of times a year in the U.S., wrong‑site and related wrong‑procedure events have risen in recent reporting, and studies suggest many postoperative complications stem from human or system failures.

Public reaction has been intense, with clinicians and patients on social media calling for accountability and systemic change. Some physicians argue that egregious errors must be condemned to preserve trust in medicine, while others and patient advocates point to operating‑room hierarchies and supervision failures that may have allowed mistakes to go unchecked. Early news coverage centered on the indictment and basic facts of the case; subsequent reporting by outlets including The New York Times and CBS introduced detailed witness descriptions of a chaotic operating room, Shaknovsky’s own admission about using the stapler without identifying the organ, and broader analysis of surgical‑safety trends—shifting the narrative from a single charged error to questions about prior incidents, oversight, and systemic risks.