A Florida grand jury has indicted Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky on a second-degree manslaughter charge in connection with the 2024 death of William Bryan, after prosecutors said the surgeon removed Bryan's liver instead of his spleen during an operation.
The indictment was announced by the First Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office after a Walton County grand jury returned the charge, according to the Walton County Sheriff's Office.
Officials said the surgery took place on Aug. 21, 2024, at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital in Florida and had been planned as a laparoscopic splenectomy. Bryan was 70 and lived in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, according to NBC News.
Authorities said the error caused severe blood loss and led to Bryan's death during the procedure. The sheriff's office said the grand jury found probable cause for criminal charges based on what happened in the operating room. Reports revealed that Shaknovsky was arrested in Miramar Beach and booked into the Walton County Jail ahead of a court appearance.
The case first drew public attention in September 2024, when Bryan's widow and family attorneys said the wrong organ had been taken and that the removed tissue was mislabeled as a spleen.
They said Bryan had gone to the hospital for treatment related to his spleen and died after losing a large amount of blood. State regulators later opened reviews of the incident, CTV News reported.
The Florida Department of Health suspended Shaknovsky's medical license in September 2024, and Alabama also issued an emergency suspension, according to a law firm representing Bryan's family.
That firm said Shaknovsky had also been connected to another wrong-site surgery in 2023 that was later settled privately. Public license records still identify him as an osteopathic physician in Florida, as per The Guardian.
