MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. (WHNT) — The Florida doctor who is accused of removing the wrong organ from a Muscle Shoals man surrendered his license to practice medicine in Alabama.
On Monday, the Alabama Medical Licensure Commission ‘accepted the full surrender of Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky’s license to practice medicine in Alabama’ following the death of Bill Bryan.
The license commission said Dr. Shaknovsky has been licensed in Alabama since 2016. He is accused of removing Bryan’s liver instead of his spleen during what was meant to be a splenectomy.
Because of this, Bryan died.
In October, the Medical License Commission suspended Dr. Shaknovsky’s license, citing concerns that his continuation in practice might “constitute an immediate danger to his patients and the public.”
The suspension was initiated after the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners filed a complaint against the doctor.
“Our duty is to ensure that physicians licensed in Alabama meet the highest standards of patient care and professionalism,” said William M. Perkins, Executive Director of the Board of Medical Examiners. “When a physician’s actions jeopardize patient safety, we act decisively to safeguard the public.”
The Medical Licensure Commission has the authority to issue, suspend, and revoke medical licenses for practitioners of medicine and osteopathy in Alabama.
70-year-old William ‘Bill’ Bryan and his wife Beverly were visiting their rental property in Destin, Florida, on Aug. 19 when Bill felt pain on his left side.
Beverly, a retired nurse, said a doctor at the medical facility diagnosed a spleen issue and insisted on performing surgery on it.
“We called Bill’s doctor, here at home in Northwest Alabama, and he told Bill that he would have surgeons here in North Alabama waiting when we got home,” Beverly explained. She said she tried to convince the doctor in Ascension Sacred Heart to let her take Bill back to Alabama, or have him transported but was told Bill would “bleed to death” if he was moved.
According to Joe Zarzaur of the Zarzaur law office, instead of removing Bill’s spleen, the doctor removed his liver on Aug. 21. Bill died on the operating table.
A pathologist reportedly told Beverly a bag labeled “spleen” contained Bill’s liver. Beverly said a medical examiner then performed an autopsy and confirmed Bill still had his spleen.
On Sept. 24, the State of Florida Department of Health ordered the emergency suspension of the doctor’s license in the state of Florida.
Documents from the State of Florida Department of Health state that Dr. Shaknovsky was accused of a second botched surgery on May 12, 2023. The document said a 58-year-old man was scheduled to have surgery on his adrenal glands due to a mass on one of the glands.
During the surgery, the State of Florida Department of Health said Dr. Shaknovsky “removed a portion of [the patient’s] pancreas instead of the adrenal gland.”
The department of health said the doctor documented in the operative report that he removed the patient’s left adrenal gland. A pathologist who reviewed the tissue a year later determined that it was pancreatic tissue.
Because of the removal of the wrong tissue, the State of Florida Department of Health said the patient suffered from “long-term, permanent harm as a result of Dr. Shaknovsky’s error.”
The doctor was said to have been practicing medicine for 14 years. Zarzaur claims, however, that the same doctor was involved in another wrong-site surgery within the past two years, with the previous case being settled at the same facility in 2023.
“Everyone knows you can’t live without your liver. It’s about the same thing as if they had pulled out your heart. His heart,” Beverly said. “I know I’m not the only wife who’s lost her husband suddenly, but the loss of my Bill was exceptionally unnecessary and brutal.”
The Walton County Sheriff’s Office says it is working with the medical examiner’s office and the Office of the State Attorney to review “the facts involving the death of William Bryan to determine if anything criminal took place.”
