Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo has suspended the license of Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, the osteopathic surgeon who is accused of mistakenly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen causing him to bleed to death on the operating table. The Florida Department of Health (FDOH) issued an emergency order Tuesday, immediately suspending the Destin doctor’s license, saying he not only violated state statutes regulating medical care, he made grievous mistakes and then “dishonestly” tried to cover his actions.
The state began investigating the 42-year-old surgeon after the death of 70-year-old William “Bill” Bryan , a Muscle Shoals, Alabama man who died on the operating table at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast in Miramar Beach on Aug. 21. According to Bryan’s widow, Beverly, and her attorney, Shaknovsky removed Bryan’s liver instead of his spleen, “causing immediate and catastrophic blood loss resulting in death.”
According to the emergency order, the decision was based on two incidents involving operating on the wrong body parts.
Details of FDOH order suspending Dr. Shaknovsky’s license revealed
The first case mentioned involves patient identified as G.D. The state says a 58-year-old man was scheduled for an adrenalectomy at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast in Miramar Beach due to a mass on his left adrenal gland. FDOH says Shaknovsky removed a portion of the patient’s pancreas instead of his adrenal gland, however he documented that he removed the patient’s left adrenal gland…