An Alabama man died on a Florida operating table after a doctor mistakenly removed the man's liver during surgery and then the surgeon tried to pass off the organ as an “enlarged spleen,” an attorney for the man's widow said.
William Bryan and his wife, Beverly, were visiting a rental property in Okaloosa County, Florida, last month when they suddenly felt pain in their lower left abdomen.
The 70-year-old Muscle Shores, Alabama, man went to Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital in Walton County and was admitted for further testing due to concerns about a spleen abnormality, Zarzaul Law PA announced on Facebook on Friday.
According to the law firm, surgeon Dr. Thomas Shakhnovsky and the hospital's chief medical officer, Dr. Christopher Bacani, convinced the family, who were reluctant to have Brian operated on at the hospital, that he “could suffer serious complications if discharged.”
Brian agreed to the doctor's orders and underwent a manual laparoscopic splenectomy on August 21st.
Midway through the operation, Shakhnovsky removed Brian's liver by severing the main blood vessels that supply blood to the liver.
The post said the surgical incision “led to immediate and catastrophic blood loss, resulting in death.”
After mistakenly removing Brian's liver, surgeons classified the organ as a “spleen” but only discovered it was a liver after Brian's death.
Shakhnovsky explained to Beverley Bryan that her husband's “spleen” had become so sick that it had grown four times its normal size and moved to the other side of his body.
In the human body, the liver is located in the upper right part of the abdominal cavity, just below the diaphragm, above the stomach, right kidney, and intestines.
The spleen is located in the upper left part of the abdomen, next to the stomach. It is much smaller than the liver, weighing 1,100-1,400 grams less, and is about the size of a fist.
Zazaul Law alleges that Dr. Shakhnovsky committed a “mis-surgical site error” in 2023, removing part of the patient's pancreas instead of performing a planned adrenaline removal.
The case was settled in secret.
Beverly Bryan has hired a law firm to get “justice” for her husband and wants the general surgeon to no longer treat other patients.
“My husband died helplessly on Dr. Shakhnovsky's operating table. The hospital should have known that my husband had previously made serious, life-changing surgical errors, and I don't want anyone else to die because of their incompetence,” his wife said in a statement through her law firm.
Beverly Bryan said she is seeking both civil and criminal charges in connection with her husband's death.
Zarzaul said North Walton Doctors Hospital had “severed ties” with Shakhnovsky and removed all photos and references to him from its website.
Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital is investigating the cause of Brian's death but would not release any further information.
“We take allegations like this very seriously and our leadership team is conducting a thorough investigation into this incident. Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast has a long history of providing safe, quality care since opening in 2003,” the hospital said in a statement. Retrieved from AL.com. “Patient safety remains our number one priority, and our thoughts and prayers go out to the family. We utmost respect the privacy of our patients and do not comment on specific patient cases or ongoing litigation.”
After William Bryan's death, a small cyst was discovered in his spleen, which is thought to have been the cause of the pain that had hospitalized him.
