An elderly Alabama man died last month when a surgeon in Florida mistakenly removed his liver instead of his spleen during an emergency procedure, his family said.
William Bryan, 70, and his wife Beverly, of Muscle Shoals, Ala., were visiting their property in Okaloosa County, Fla. when he started feeling pain on the left side of his abdomen, personal injury firm Zarzaur Law said in a statement.
He was admitted to Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast hospital in Miramar for spleen abnormalities.
Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, a general surgeon, and Dr. Christopher Bacani, the hospital’s chief medical officer, convinced Bryan to undergo surgery at the hospital on Aug. 21.
Beverly Bryan claims that Dr. Shaknovsky said her husband’s spleen was diseased, oversized and moved to the opposite side of his body.
But according to the law firm, the surgeon removed his liver instead, which caused “immediate and catastrophic blood loss resulting in death.”
Shaknovsky made a similar error in 2023 when he removed parts of a pancreas instead of an adrenal gland, the family’s attorneys allege. That case was settled privately.
The hospital said in a statement Wednesday it’s “performing a thorough investigation” into the death and takes allegations like the one made by the Bryan family “very seriously.”
The Walton County Sheriff’s Office said it’s also investigating Bryan’s death.