An Alabama man is dead after he went to a Florida hospital to seek treatment for lower left abdominal pain while on vacation. The surgeon who performed emergency surgery on 70-year-old William Bryan mistakenly removed his liver instead of his spleen.
Now his widow, Beverly Bryan, is fighting for “justice” for her husband of 33 years.
The couple were at their rental property in Destin, Florida when William began experiencing “severe abdominal pain.”
William went to Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital where he was told he would need surgery because of an abnormality with his spleen. Beverly initially wanted to wait until the couple returned home, but according to Joe Zarzaur, the Bryan family’s attorney, Thomas Shaknovsky warned William he “could experience serious complications if he left the hospital.”
The 70-year-old opted to stay and underwent an emergency hand-assisted laparoscopic splenectomy three days after he first visited the hospital.
During the procedure, Shaknovsky is accused of removing William’s liver instead of his spleen causing “immediate and catastrophic blood loss, resulting in death.”
Zarzaur claimed the mistake was not immediately noticed as Shaknovsky had labeled the removed organ “spleen”. It was only after William’s death that the specimen was identified as William’s liver.
Following the surgery, Shaknovsky allegedly told Beverly that her husband’s “spleen was so diseased that it was four times bigger than usual and had migrated to the other side of (his) body.”
“My husband died while helpless on the operating room table by Dr. Shaknovsky,” Beverly said in a statement. “I don’t want anyone else to die due to his incompetence at a hospital that should have known or knew he had previously made drastic, life-altering surgical mistakes.”
An autopsy found a small cyst on William’s spleen, and it’s believed that was the cause of his pain. Zarzaur stated “it probably would have been very treatable.”
I am without words. How did this happen? This surgeon should never be allowed to operate ever again.
