A Florida doctor has been indicted in connection with the death of a 70-year-old man whose organs were mistakenly removed during surgery.
Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, 44, was indicted by a grand jury for second-degree manslaughter in the August 2024 death of a man in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, the State Attorney’s Office for the First Judicial District said.
He was taken into custody in Miramar Beach, Florida, on Monday morning and transported to the Walton County Jail before appearing in court on Tuesday.
Prosecutors allege that on August 21, 2024, during a scheduled laparoscopic splenectomy, Shaknovsky accidentally removed the victim’s liver instead of his spleen. The move led to “catastrophic blood loss and the patient died on the operating table,” the press release said.
In a phone call, the victim’s widow, Beverly Bryan, identified her husband, Bill Bryan.
She said: “When I told people what happened, I still felt like it was too terrible to happen. “I still have trouble believing that it happened to me. Can you imagine?”
After the surgery, the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners filed a petition with the court to temporarily suspend Shaknovsky’s medical license. That license was revoked that same year by the Alabama Medical Licensing Commission.
His Florida driver’s license was also suspended in 2024, and his New York driver’s license was also suspended in 2025.
The court order suspending his license said Shaknovsky recommended surgery after the 70-year-old patient presented to Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital Emerald Coast, citing abdominal pain and imaging “showing suspected spleen enlargement and intraperitoneal blood without hemorrhage.”
Over the next two days, Shaknovsky advised the patient who wanted to return home to Alabama to have surgery, records show. On the third day, Shaknovsky “continued to pressure” the patient, but the patient later agreed, according to records.
According to records, Shaknovsky continued the surgery even after the patient suffered a cardiac arrest during the procedure.
“Dr. Shaknovsky removed an organ he believed to be the spleen, but due to the shock and chaos he was unable to accurately identify the organ,” the records state.
After surgery, doctors said the patient died from a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm, records state.
An autopsy showed “no evidence of a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm,” according to records. And while “the spleen and its attachments remained intact and in a normal position, the patient’s liver was missing,” the filing alleges.
A representative for Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The filing also accuses Shaknovsky of two other instances of negligence, one of which the board alleges led to the death of another patient.
In that case, the panel accused Shaknovsky of removing part of the patient’s pancreas during a routine surgery in May 2023, in which the patient was supposed to have his left adrenal gland removed.
The board also accused Shaknovsky of removing part of the patient’s intestines during another surgery in July 2023, causing a gastrointestinal perforation, where a hole developed in the intestines. Immediately after surgery, the patient was transferred to the ICU and died, records state.
A representative for the board did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In 2024, Shaknovsky settled a negligence claim related to the May 2023 incident for $400,000, according to public records from the Florida Department of Health.
In 2025, Beverly Bryan filed a civil lawsuit against Shaknovsky, accusing the surgeon of causing her husband’s death. The outcome of the case was still pending when Shaknovsky was taken into custody this week.
“He wanted his death to prevent other people from being hurt, which is what I think the criminal charges brought will do,” Beverly Bryan said of her husband. “If we have to endure this and he has to die then at least now no one else will be hurt by this man.”
Despite the allegations, Shaknovsky said he “has never been asked or allowed to resign or had any medical staff privileges restricted or revoked within the past 10 years,” according to public records from the Florida Department of Health.
Shaknovsky could not be reached for comment and it was unclear whether he had retained a lawyer. The First Judicial District State Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Shaknovsky graduated from Midwestern University’s Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2009, according to public records.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com