{"id":230698,"date":"2026-04-14T03:45:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T03:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/230698\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T03:45:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T03:45:16","slug":"florida-doctor-charged-in-2024-death-of-patient-who-had-wrong-organ-removed-walton-county-sheriffs-office-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/230698\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida doctor charged in 2024 death of patient who had wrong organ removed, Walton County sheriff’s office says"},"content":{"rendered":"

A grand jury has returned an indictment charging Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky with second-degree manslaughter in the 2024 death of a 70-year-old man from Alabama.<\/p>\n

WALTON COUNTY, Fla \u2014 A Florida doctor accused of removing the wrong organ from a patient has been indicted for second-degree manslaughter according to the Walton County Sheriff’s Office. \u00a0Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky was arrested on Monday and is now in the Walton County jail.<\/p>\n

His arrest comes almost two years after the death of William Bryan, 70, a veteran who died on the operating table at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast in Miramar Beach, Florida, in August 2024. He died during what was scheduled to be a laparoscopic splenectomy after Shaknovsky removed his liver instead of his spleen, according to the Walton County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

The sheriff\u2019s office says a grand jury found probable cause to charge the actions taken in the operating room constituted criminal conduct under Florida law.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur duty is to follow the facts wherever they lead, without fear or favor,\u201d said Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson. \u201cThe Grand Jury has spoken, and our responsibility is to ensure the charges are carried out through the proper legal process. Our thoughts remain with the victim\u2019s family and their unspeakable loss. We are committed to seeing this case through with the professionalism and integrity our community expects.\u201d<\/p>\n

As First Coast News\u00a0previously reported<\/a>, in September 2024, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo issued a 21-page emergency order suspending his Florida license to practice as an osteopathic physician. Ladapo wrote in that order that Shaknovsky “presents an immediate, serious danger to the health, welfare and safety of the public” citing “egregious surgical errors” and “egregious conduct of fabricating medical records.”<\/p>\n

The emergency suspension order spelled out a history of problems. It said in May 2023 Shaknovsky removed a portion of a different patient\u2019s pancreas instead of his adrenal gland at that same hospital and claimed the adrenal gland had “migrated” to a different part of the body. Florida Insurance Regulation records show that the patient suffered permanent injuries including loss of fingers and loss or damage to his organs. The case was settled for $400,000, according to the Florida Insurance Regulation records.<\/p>\n

In November 2024, Shaknovsky voluntarily surrendered his license to practice medicine in Alabama. His license status in Florida is listed on the Department of Health\u2019s (DOH) website as \u201cretired,\u201d meaning he is not authorized to practice in the state according to the DOH.<\/p>\n

Shaknovsky is currently in jail awaiting his first appearance in court. If convicted, the maximum time he could face in prison would be 15 years according to the State Attorney’s Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A grand jury has returned an indictment charging Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky with second-degree manslaughter in the 2024 death…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-230698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}