Man dies after surgeon removes wrong organ at Florida hospital, lawyer says

PENSACOLA, Fla. (WESH) – The attorney for a woman whose husband died in a Florida hospital says the surgeon removed the wrong organ.

The couple was visiting their rented property in Okaloosa County when William Bryan, 70, began experiencing pain in his left flank.

They went to Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital, where doctors were supposed to remove Bryan’s spleen. Instead, the lawyer says, they removed Bryan’s liver.

“During this operation, Dr. Shaknovsky removed Mr. Bryan’s liver and in doing so severed the main vasculature supplying blood to the liver, resulting in immediate and catastrophic blood loss resulting in death,” a press release from the attorney reads. “The surgeon proceeded to label the removed liver sample as a ‘spleen,’ and it was not until after death that it was identified that the removed organ was actually Mr. Bryan’s liver, rather than spleen.”

The surgeon allegedly told the man’s wife, Beverly Bryan, that the “spleen” was so diseased that it was four times its normal size and had migrated to the other side of her husband’s body.

“The family was informed that Mr. Bryan’s spleen, the root of his original symptom presentation at the time of his hospital presentation, was still in his body and appeared to have a small cyst on its surface,” the news release said.

The man’s wife is seeking criminal and civil action and said: “My husband died helplessly on Dr. Shaknovsky’s operating table. I don’t want anyone else to die because of his incompetence at a hospital that should have known or been aware that he had made drastic, life-changing surgical errors before.”

The doctors named in the incident are Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, general surgeon, and Dr. Christopher Bacani, medical director.