Officials in Florida are investigating the tragic case of a man who went in for a spleen removal and reportedly ended up having his liver removed instead.
In August of this year 70-year-old William Bryan of Muscle Shoals, Alabama went to Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast in Miramar, Florida on Aug 21. for a spleen removal surgery. He reportedly had spleen abnormalities which required the organ to be removed, according to a statement from Zarzaur Law, a personal injury law firm in Pensacola, Florida.Bryan and his wife, Beverly Bryan, were in the state visiting their rental property when William began experiencing left-sided flank pain, Beverly Bryan’s attorneys said. They were hesitant to have the emergency surgery done in Florida but were convinced by hospital staff that he was at risk of suffering from severe complications if they were to leave the hospital, NBC News reported.
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One of Beverlys attorneys, Joe Zarzaur, said in a statement that Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky removed Mr. Bryans liver and, in so doing, transected the major vasculature supplying the liver, causing immediate and catastrophic blood loss resulting in death.
The surgeon proceeded with labeling the removed liver specimen as a ‘spleen,’ and it wasnt until following the death that it was identified that the organ removed was actually Mr. Bryans liver, as opposed to the spleen, the statement said.
One hospital staff member told the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration that she was trying not cry while performing CPR on William after seeing Dr. Shaknovsky pull out something much larger than a spleen. A spleen weighs about a third of a pound while the liver weighs around 4 pounds.
Attorneys for Beverly claimed that the doctor didn’t immediately notice the error and labeled the removed liver specimen as “spleen”.
The spleen had a small cyst on it that had some hemorrhage around it, but it was not a fatal issue. It was a fairly routine-looking cyst. It probably would have been very treatable, attorneys for the family said.
Once an autopsy was done on the man, by the medical examiner determined that his liver had been removed, while his spleen was still in his body with a cyst attached to it. Zarzaur said during a news conference on Tuesday: “I have the pleasure of representing Mrs. Bryan and her family. Unfortunately, we represent her in one of the most egregious cases of medical malpractice that I’ve ever been involved with.”
A 47-page report by the Florida AHCA and reiterates that Bryan did not want to have the surgery and was convinced by hospital staff to have it performed at the hospital in Florida.
The report also stated that operating room staff told investigators that they had little confidence in the surgeon and were concerned about the outcome of the procedure. One nurse reportedly heard a woman say in the operating room that’s the f****** liver.”
The state medical board has now ordered a suspension on Shaknovsky’s license.
Documents also showed two other incidents at the hospital, one involving a case of a pancreas being removed instead of an adrenal gland and another involving a perforated bowel during a colectomy which resulted in the patient dying from an infection. Both cases had Shaknovsky as the surgeon.
Beverly Bryan is now pushing for not only civil charges against the doctor and the hospital but criminal charges as well.
