A guy who had a medical emergency while on vacation in Florida died on the operating table when the surgeon took his liver instead of his spleen, according to the patient’s family.
William Bryan, of Alabama, was visiting the Florida panhandle last month when he suddenly had lower left stomach pain. He and his wife, Beverly, proceeded to the Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital, located between Pensacola and Panama City.
Doctors were concerned about an irregularity in his spleen and admitted him for further testing, according to the family lawyer.
General Surgeon Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Christopher Bacani convinced the 70-year-old Bryan to have emergency surgery at the hospital or risk “serious complications” if he left, Zarzaur Law P.A. stated on Facebook Friday.
Bryan underwent a hand-assisted laparoscopic splenectomy on August 21.
The litigation company claims that in the middle of the surgery, Shaknovsky removed Bryan’s liver rather than his spleen.
The surgical error caused “immediate and catastrophic blood loss resulting in death,” the law firm said.
The action company says that after removing Bryan’s liver, the general surgeon incorrectly described the organ as a “spleen.” After the individual died, it was identified as a liver.
Shaknovsky allegedly told Beverly Bryan that her husband’s “‘spleen’ was so diseased that it was four times bigger than usual and had migrated to the other side of (his) body,” according to the firm.
The liver is often positioned on the upper right side of the abdominal cavity, immediately below the diaphragm and above the stomach, right kidney, and intestines.
The spleen, which is positioned on the upper left side of the abdomen adjacent to the stomach, is much smaller than the liver, weighing 2.4 to 3 pounds less and roughly the size of a fist.
Zarzaur Law claimed that Shaknovsky had already performed a “wrong-site surgery” last year, in which he was accused of removing a chunk of a patient’s pancreas rather than completing an adrenal gland resection as planned.
According to the law firm, the dispute was settled without disclosing the details.
Beverly Bryan stated that she hired the litigation company to seek “justice” for her husband and hopes the general surgeon no longer handles other patients.
“My husband died while helpless on the operating room table,” writes Dr. Shaknovsky. I don’t want anyone else to perish as a result of his ineptitude at a hospital that should have known or was aware that he had previously made significant, life-altering surgical errors,” the widow said in a statement released through the law firm.
Bryan stated that she is pursuing both a lawsuit and a criminal probe into her husband’s murder.
According to Zarzaur, North Walton Doctor’s Hospital has “disassociated” itself from Shaknovsky by removing all photographs and references to the doctor from its website.
In a statement, Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital stated that it was investigating William Bryan’s death but did not provide any other information due to confidentiality regulations.
“We take charges like these extremely seriously, and our leadership team is conducting an extensive inquiry into the incident. Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast has a long history of providing safe, high-quality treatment since its inception in 2003,” according to a statement received by AL.com.
“Patient safety is and will continue to be our top concern. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family. Our patients’ privacy is extremely important to us. We do not comment on individual patient cases or ongoing litigation.
Following Bryan’s death, the medical examiner detected a tiny cyst on his spleen, which is thought to be the source of the pain he was initially hospitalized for.