Florida surgeon charged with killing man after removing liver instead of spleen

Shaknovsky advised Bryan that he would need to have his spleen removed. But Bryan initially declined to have the surgery, saying he wanted to return home to Alabama and receive treatment at a facility with higher-level care, according to a lawsuit filed by his widow. But Shaknovsky allegedly continued to pressure Bryan over the next few days, and he eventually agreed to the surgery. Things went off the rails almost immediately, according to the health department’s report. The surgery was initially scheduled for 4 pm, but Shaknovsky arrived at the hospital an hour late, and Bryan was brought into the operating room (OR) around 5:20 pm when only a skeleton crew was available. Shaknovsky quickly abandoned the plan for a laparoscopic procedure when he realized, after starting, that Bryan had a distended colon that hindered his view. After a while, the staff was unable to resuscitate Byran, and he was pronounced dead. Shaknovsky extracted an organ he called Byran’s spleen and put it on a table. Staff reportedly looked at the readily identifiable liver in shock. One reported feeling sick to their stomach. The liver Shaknovsky removed was over 2,100 grams, measuring about 23 by 19 by 11 centimeters. An enlarged spleen is at most 500 grams and only up to 20 cm long, the health department noted. Moreover, livers and spleens are anatomically distinct and have different colors and consistencies. The liver is on the right side of the abdomen, while the spleen is on the left, the side Byran had said was painful. Shaknovsky insisted that the liver be labeled as a spleen and returned to the OR three times that evening to try to convince staff that it was a spleen. A pathology report of the so-called spleen described it as “a grossly identifiable 2,106 g liver.” An autopsy revealed that Byran’s spleen was intact, his liver was missing, and his inferior vena cava was severed. The inferior vena cava is the largest vein in the body and brings deoxygenated blood from the lower body back to the heart through the liver. Amid investigating the ghastly circumstances of Byran’s death, investigators also noted that it wasn’t the first time that Shaknovsky had removed the wrong organ. In 2023, he wrongly removed a portion of a patient’s pancreas when he intended to remove the adrenal gland. He reported afterward that the adrenal gland had “migrated.” The lawsuit Bryan’s widow filed is still pending. She told NBC News: “He would want his death to prevent someone else from being hurt, which is what I think the criminal charges being brought will do. If we had to suffer through this and he had to die, then at least no one else will be hurt by this man now.”