A Florida surgeon facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient's liver instead of his spleen has described being "forever traumatized" by the incident. Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, 44, spoke about the death of 70-year-old William Bryan in a November deposition recently obtained by NBC News.
Surgeon's Account of the Botched Surgery
Shaknovsky called Bryan's death an "incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply." He added, "I'm forever traumatized by it and hurt by it." The surgeon acknowledged that wrong-site surgeries can occur "during difficult circumstances."
The deposition provided Shaknovsky's first detailed account of the operation, which resulted in Bryan's death and garnered national headlines. According to the deposition, after removing Bryan's liver, Shaknovsky instructed a nurse to label the organ as a "spleen" and identified it as such in postoperative notes. He later stated he was "mentally compromised" at the time, saying he was "devastated, demoralized, crying over his passing, felt that I failed him."
Legal and Medical Consequences
In April, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. A lawsuit filed by Bryan's widow, Beverly Bryan, accuses Shaknovsky of medical malpractice, alleging he "wrongfully omitted any reference to Mr. Bryan's liver being removed in order to 'cover up' his gross negligence."
The Walton County Sheriff's Office stated that Shaknovsky's actions caused "catastrophic blood loss and the patient's death on the operating table." During the deposition, Shaknovsky described the chaos in the operating room after Bryan began bleeding extensively, causing his heart to stop. He attempted to find the source of the bleeding but said, "I couldn't tell the difference because I was so upset."
Defense and Expert Opinions
Shaknovsky compared the situation to an "overflown sink that's clogged up, and I am looking for a fork at the bottom, trying to feel and find the bleed, and I was not able to do so." He added, "After 20 minutes of struggling – desperately trying – to save his life, that's when the wrong-site event took place."
Despite a spleen typically being much smaller than a liver, Shaknovsky claimed he believed Bryan's spleen was "double the size of what is normal" due to a mass. However, Beverly Bryan's lawsuit states that a medical examiner told her her husband's spleen was anatomically "nearly normal."
After the medical team failed to resuscitate Bryan, Shaknovsky went to the hospital's medical library to cry privately, stating, "I didn't want the staff to see me like that." He now faces a legal battle as the case proceeds.
