{"id":237628,"date":"2026-04-19T05:50:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T05:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/237628\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T05:50:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T05:50:18","slug":"florida-doctor-charged-with-manslaughter-after-allegedly-removing-wrong-organ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/237628\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida doctor charged with manslaughter after allegedly removing wrong organ"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Posted at 12:30 PM, April 18, 2026\n <\/p>\n

DEFUNIAK SPRINGS, Fla. (Court TV) \u2014 A Florida doctor is facing manslaughter charges after he allegedly removed the wrong organ from a patient during surgery.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/p>\n

Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky is facing criminal charges for the death of a patient. (Walton County Sheriff\u2019s Office)<\/p>\n

Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, 44, was indicted by a Walton County grand jury on a single charge of second-degree manslaughter in the death of his patient, William Bryan, 70.<\/p>\n

Bryan and his wife, who lived in Alabama, were on vacation in Florida when Bryan fell ill. A hospital report reviewed by Court TV indicates he was admitted to Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital and was diagnosed with having multiple issues with his spleen that required surgery. Bryan initially demurred, saying he wanted to be discharged and return the five hours home to Alabama, but when his condition worsened, he ultimately agreed to the surgery.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 21, 2024, Bryan was supposed to undergo a routine laparoscopic splenectomy. But investigators say, instead of removing the patient\u2019s spleen, Shaknovsky removed his liver instead. Shaknovsky\u2019s operative report makes no reference to the alleged error. \u201cThe spleen was exposed, noted to be severely deformed,\u201d the defendant wrote in his report. \u201cSpleen noted to be quite friable and certainly the large side made the dissection challenging.\u201d The word \u201cliver\u201d does not appear in the report.<\/p>\n

Joe Zarzaur, an attorney retained by Bryant\u2019s family, told Law & Crime<\/a> that the mistake goes beyond the realm of accidental. \u201cYou can\u2019t accidentally take out someone\u2019s liver,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the reason you can\u2019t accidentally take out somebody\u2019s liver is that it has more connection points than most any other organ in the body. So when you take out the liver, you have to basically dissect it out carefully, because it has so many different connection points that nobody, not even a brand-new surgeon, would not know they\u2019re taking out the liver.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur duty is to follow the facts wherever they lead, without fear or favor,\u201d Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson said in a statement announcing the indictment. \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.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a video statement posted to YouTube, Zarzaur claimed that this wasn\u2019t the first time Shaknovsky has made a critical error: \u201cPerhaps most concerning is that Dr. Shaknovsky had a previous wrong-site surgery in 2023 where he mistakenly removed a portion of a patient\u2019s pancreas instead of performing the intended adrenal gland resection,\u201d he said. Zarzaur warned that the defendant may still be treating patients for the U.S. Military. \u201cThe military system is not tied to any particular state, and I guess he has figured out a way to continue practicing medicine and not disclose what\u2019s going on in his civilian life,\u201d Zarzaur told Law & Crime.<\/p>\n

Shaknovsky was released from custody on a $75,000 bond. He is due to return to court for a hearing on May 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Posted at 12:30 PM, April 18, 2026 DEFUNIAK SPRINGS, Fla. (Court TV) \u2014 A Florida doctor is facing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,2627,105556],"class_list":["post-237628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-manslaughter","tag-medical-crimes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237628","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=237628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}