Florida surgeon removed wrong organ, killing man -- and a cover-up followed, suit says

[Zorro]

The family of a man who died because a Florida surgeon removed his liver instead of his spleen is suing, saying hospital staff took part in a cover-up to hide the true cause of their loved one’s death.

During what was supposed to be a splenectomy, Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky cut into William Bryan’s liver – and kept dissecting the organ as he was bleeding out at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital in Walton County on Aug. 21, an emergency order issued by Florida’s surgeon general said.

Then he put a “readily-identifiable liver” on the operating room table and said it was Bryan’s spleen, according to the order, McClatchy News previously reported. Bryan was 70 when he died.

State Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo suspended Shaknovsky’s license over “repeated egregious surgical errors resulting in significant patient harm” in connection with Bryan and other patients, the order said.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2025/02/08/florida-surgeon-license-liver-spleen-removal/

I'm no surgeon, but I think even I could differentiate between a liver and a spleen.