Florida doctor accused of fatally removing wrong organ from patient has license suspended
A Florida doctor who is accused of removing an Alabama man’s liver instead of the spleen, resulting in “immediate and catastrophic death,” had his medical license suspended.In an emergency order filed Sept.24, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo accused Thomas J.
Shakvovksy of “repeated egregious surgical errors” and “egregious conduct of fabricating medical records” in the Aug.21 death of 70-year-old William Bryan.Shakvovksy was a practicing Osteopathic Physician at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital before the tragedy.
Bryan and his wife Beverly were visiting the Florida panhandle from their home in Muscle Shoals, Ala.when he began experiencing lower left abdominal pain.The couple went to the hospital in Miramar Beach — which is between Pensacola and Panama City — where doctors were concerned about an abnormality of the spleen and they admitted him for further testing as Bryan declined “surgical intervention.”Imaging revealed a suspected enlarged spleen and blood in the peritoneum with no active hemorrhage, according to the document.Shaknovsky allegedly recommended that Bryan undergo a laparoscopic splenectomy on three consecutive days, with the patient refusing and wishing to go back to Alabama, but the doctor persisted, according to the order of emergency suspension viewed by The Post.Bryan eventually relented to the doctor’s request who cited a decline in hemoglobin, but the order noted the decrease was only marginal over the three-day hospital stay.
Shaknovsky scheduled the “complicated procedure” for 4 p.m.on Aug.
21, with the operating room staff noting the surgery was being done by a “skeletal staff,” and the doctor couldn’t operate.“Staff had concerns that Dr.
Shaknovsky did not have the skill level to safely perform this procedure,” the surgeon general’s order noted.The operation began but Shaknovsky quickly elected to convert to an open procedure citing poor visibility due to Bryan’s “disten...