A Florida doctor has been indicted in connection with the death of a 70-year-old man after allegedly removing the wrong organ during surgery.
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Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, 44, was indicted by a grand jury with second-degree manslaughter in the August 2024 death of a 70-year-old man from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, the Office of the State Attorney for the First Judicial Circuit said Tuesday.
He was taken into custody in Miramar Beach, Florida, on Monday morning and transported to the Walton County Jail ahead of his court appearance Tuesday.
Prosecutors allege in a press release that on Aug. 21, 2024, during what was scheduled to be a laparoscopic splenectomy, Shaknovsky accidentally removed the unnamed victim’s liver instead of his spleen. The move resulted in “catastrophic blood loss and the patient’s death on the operating table,” the press release said.
After the surgery, the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners filed a court order to temporarily suspend Shaknovsky’s medical license. That license was revoked by the Alabama Medical Licensure Commission that same year.
His Florida license was also suspended in 2024.
The court order to suspend his license states that Shaknovsky recommended surgery after the 70-year-old patient came into the hospital with complaints of abdominal pain, and imaging “revealed a suspected enlarged spleen and blood in the peritoneum with no active hemorrhage.”
For the next two days, Shaknovsky advised the patient, who wanted to return home to Alabama, to get surgery, the filing says. On the third day, Shaknovsky “continued to pressure” the patient, who then acquiesced, according to the filing.
Shaknovsky continued the operation even while the patient went into cardiac arrest during the surgery, according to the filing.
“Dr. Shaknovsky removed an organ he believed to be the spleen, but due to his shock and the chaos, he was unable to properly identify the organ,” the filing states.
After the surgery, the doctor said that the patient died of a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm, the filing states.
An autopsy found “no evidence of a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm,” according to the filing. And while the patient’s “spleen and its attachments were untouched and in the normal position, his liver was missing,” the filing alleged.
The filing also accused Shaknovsky of two other instances of malpractice, one of which the board alleges led to the death of another patient.
The board accused Shaknovsky of removing part of a patient’s pancreas during a routine surgery in May 2023, where the patient was supposed to have their left adrenal gland removed.
It also accused Shaknovsky of removing part of a patient’s intestine during another procedure in July 2023, causing a gastrointestinal perforation, where a hole develops in the intestine. Shortly after the surgery, the patient was moved to the ICU and died, the filing states.
It is unclear whether Shaknovsky has retained an attorney. The State Attorney’s Office of the First Judicial Circuit did not immediately return a request for comment.
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