Man, 70, dies after Florida surgeon removed liver instead of spleen: lawyer

A 70-year-old man from Alabama died on the operating table after a surgeon mistakenly removed his liver instead of his spleen, according to the family’s lawyer, who says there’s evidence that this is not the first time the doctor has removed the wrong organ during surgery.

“Every once and a while we get a case where the facts are so egregious and dangerous to the local public that we feel like we should stop what we’re doing and put out a public service announcement,” lawyer Joe Zarzaur said. “This is one of those situations.”

Zarzaur is representing the family of William Bryan, a resident of Muscle Shoals, Ala., who died in a Florida hospital after he was allegedly convinced by Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky to get his spleen removed, only for the surgeon to take out the wrong organ.

Bryan and his wife Beverly were visiting their rental property on Florida’s northern coast when he suddenly began experiencing abdominal pain on the left side, Zarzaur’s law firm wrote in a press release. Bryan was admitted to Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital in Miramar Beach and was advised to go under the knife for a laparoscopic splenectomy procedure.

The family was “reluctant” to go forward with the surgery in Florida, but they were eventually persuaded by Shaknovsky, a general surgeon, and Dr. Christopher Bacani, the chief medical officer of the hospital. The two doctors convinced the family that Bryan “could experience serious complications if he left the hospital,” the law firm writes.

During the operation on Aug. 21, Shaknovsky removed Bryan’s liver instead of his spleen, according to a surgical pathology report obtained by the family’s lawyer and shared with media outlets. When an autopsy was conducted on Bryan’s body, his spleen