{"id":235917,"date":"2026-04-17T17:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T17:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/235917\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T17:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T17:57:09","slug":"son-of-2nd-patient-who-died-after-seeing-florida-surgeon-speaks-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/235917\/","title":{"rendered":"Son of 2nd patient who died after seeing Florida surgeon speaks out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Weyman Dorsett knew something went wrong with his mom\u2019s surgery as he watched an ICU doctor review her medical charts.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ll never forget and it\u2019ll never leave my mind, the look on that doctor\u2019s face as he was reading through the files,\u201d Dorsett, 53, said. \u201c… He was just shaking his head, like: \u2018what in the living hell is going on?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

His mother, 70-year-old Dorothy Dorsett, was in recovery after a surgeon removed a tumor from her digestive tract. But she was hardly eating and had an abnormally fast heartbeat, according to a lawsuit Dorsett later filed. She was moved to the ICU nearly a week after the surgery. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe just started really spiraling, pain,\u201d Dorsett said. \u201cShe was not my mom.\u201d<\/p>\n

She died days later, on Aug. 4, 2023.<\/p>\n

About a year later, another patient, William Bryan, 70, died after the same surgeon operated on him. <\/p>\n

The surgeon, Thomas Shaknovsky was arrested this week, accused of accidentally removing Bryan\u2019s liver instead of his spleen, prosecutors said. Shaknovsky operated on both Dorothy Dorsett and Bryan at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast in Miramar Beach.<\/p>\n

Shaknovsky and his lawyer could not be immediately reached for comment. However, he has denied wrongdoing in Dorothy Dorsett\u2019s case in court filings of his own, arguing that some of the allegations were inaccurate and that descriptions of Dorsett’s care were incomplete. The lawsuit remains ongoing.<\/p>\n

Do you have a story to share? Email reporter matthew.lavietes@nbcuni.com or reach us at our tip line<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The hospital did not immediately return a request for comment. Earlier this week, Macdonald Walker, a spokesperson for Ascension Sacred Heart, said in a statement that Shaknovsky \u201cwas never a Sacred Heart Emerald Coast employee and has not practiced at any of our facilities since August 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weyman Dorsett filed a lawsuit against Shaknovsky and Ascension Sacred Heart last year, accusing the doctor and hospital of negligence. He spoke out for the first time since his mother died in an interview with NBC News on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got two boys, a wife, now a grandbaby, and you know, I\u2019m trying to be there for them, but, man, I\u2019ve struggled mentally in dealing with it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just not right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HarrisonHarrison Dorsett, Dorothy Dorsett, Mr. Weyman Dorsett Sr (now deceased), and Weyman Dorsett Jr.Dorsett family<\/p>\n

On July 24, 2023, Dorothy Dorsett was admitted to the hospital after suffering abdominal pain, Weyman Dorsett, said. At the time, he said his mom was \u201cin great health.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was going non-stop. She lived on her own, drove everywhere, she went all over,\u201d he said. \u201cPrior to the surgery, she flew to my oldest son\u2019s wedding in Bentonville, Arkansas, with a broken leg from a car wreck.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the hospital, his mom was diagnosed with gastrointestinal bleeding and acute blood loss anemia, according to the civil complaint.<\/p>\n

The next day, the Dorsett family met Shaknovsky, whom Weyman Dorsett described as \u201codd.\u201d He said the doctor prayed by his mom\u2019s bedside before the surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was way over the top,\u201d Weyman Dorsett said. \u201cIt was very insincere to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said his mother thought Shaknovsky was \u201cvery weird.\u201d<\/p>\n

That day, Shaknovsky performed a colonoscopy and found a tumor in Dorothy Dorsett\u2019s digestive tract, which he removed on July 27, 2023, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

During the surgery following the colonoscopy, Shaknovsky did not perform a routine test, which would have ensured there were no leaks in a newly joined intestine, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

Shaknovsky told the family that the surgery \u201cwent great,\u201d Weyman Dorsett said, but his mother\u2019s condition immediately started to deteriorate.<\/p>\n

He said that his mom was moved to the ICU on Aug. 2, 2023. <\/p>\n

Weyman Dorsett left that night, but his mother called him to come back to the hospital at midnight, saying she was going to die.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom looked at me and just said, \u2018It is what it is. I\u2019ve lived a good life,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I had to sit there and watch her die.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Aug. 3, 2023, a doctor on call, Dr. Chun W. Chen, documented Dorothy Dorsett\u2019s condition, according to the complaint, noting that he saw \u201cmore air than I would expect postsurgical\u201d and mentioning concern \u201cfor bowel perforation specifically around the chain sutures in the pelvis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chen added in the report that pockets of air had formed around Dorothy\u2019s pelvis, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough this may be postsurgical, cannot exclude bowel perforation,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Chen said in a brief phone call that he didn\u2019t remember the patient and declined to comment further.<\/p>\n

That evening, Shaknovsky documented in a daily progress note the air and fluid collection in Dorothy\u2019s pelvis, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

Shaknovsky did not advise surgical intervention due to Dorothy\u2019s declining organ function and risks associated with anesthesia, the complaint says.<\/p>\n

Dorothy Dorsett was pronounced dead at 5:29 a.m. on August 4, 2023, according to the complaint. She passed away surrounded by family, the complaint says.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil you go through it yourself, and to be there with my mom and watch her suffer, and to be there when she takes her last breath has been devastating,\u201d Weyman Dorsett said. \u201cI suffer every day. It\u2019s a haunting memory that I can\u2019t erase out of my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HarrisonHarrison Dorsett, left, Coleman Dorsett, back, and Dorothy Dorsett.Dorsett familyAllegations of another botched surgery<\/p>\n

On Aug. 21, 2024, prosecutors allege that Shaknovsky accidentally removed William Bryan\u2019s liver instead of his spleen during what was scheduled to be a laparoscopic splenectomy.<\/p>\n

Shaknovsky, who had been licensed to practice medicine in several states, had his Florida license suspended about a month after Bryan\u2019s death. Later that year, he voluntarily surrendered his license to practice in Alabama. New York then suspended his license in 2025.<\/p>\n

Bryan\u2019s widow, Beverly Bryan, filed a civil lawsuit against Shaknovsky in 2025, accusing the surgeon of causing her husband\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

After the suit was filed, Weyman Dorsett learned that the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration completed an investigation into his mom\u2019s death in September 2024, after Bryan\u2019s botched surgery and more than a year after Dorothy\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

The investigation found that Shaknovsky and other hospital physicians \u201cfailed to appropriately use diagnostic testing and delayed in ordering imaging to timely treat sepsis\u201d in Dorothy Dorsett\u2019s case, according to a copy of the report.<\/p>\n

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration did not return a request for comment. <\/p>\n

Shaknovsky was indicted by a grand jury on a charge of second-degree manslaughter in the death of Bryan, according to officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s bittersweet,\u201d Weyman Dorsett said. \u201cYou know, nothing\u2019s going to bring back Mr. Bryan, or my mom and all the other people that are still out there that have been butchered and suffered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dorothy Dorsett grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, where she and her husband, Weyman Dorsett II, her high school sweetheart, raised their two children: Weyman Dorsett III and his sister.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe just was everything you would think the American dream mom would be,\u201d he said. \u201cShe led by example, best cook in the world. She was our rock.\u201d<\/p>\n

She and her husband moved back and forth from Alabama to Miramar Beach, Florida, about 30 miles west of Panama City. She moved to Miramar Beach permanently following the death of Weyman Dorsett II in 2021.<\/p>\n

Weyman Dorsett III described his mother\u2019s passing as a \u201cbig piece missing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Weyman Dorsett knew something went wrong with his mom\u2019s surgery as he watched an ICU doctor review her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-235917","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-headlines","10":"tag-florida-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235917","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=235917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}