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A Florida surgeon mistakenly removed a man’s liver instead of his spleen, causing him to die on the operating table, a lawyer for the man’s widow alleges.

William Bryan and his wife, Beverly Bryan, were in the Sunshine State visiting their rental property when he began experiencing “left-sided flank pain,” Beverly Bryan's attorneys said.

He was admitted to the hospital for further evaluation, and although the Bryans were reluctant to have surgery in Florida, they were persuaded by Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, a general surgeon, and Dr. Christopher Bacani, the hospital’s chief medical officer, that he could experience serious complications if he left the hospital’s care.

 

Shaknovsky performed a hand-assisted laparoscopic splenectomy on William Bryan, Zarzaur said, which had deadly consequences.

“Dr. Shaknovsky removed Mr. Bryan’s liver and, in so doing, transected the major vasculature supplying the liver, causing immediate and catastrophic blood loss resulting in death,” the statement said. “The surgeon proceeded with labeling the removed liver specimen as a 'spleen,' and it wasn’t until following the death that it was identified that the organ removed was actually Mr. Bryan’s liver, as opposed to the spleen.'”

Shaknovsky told Beverly Bryan her husband’s spleen was so diseased that it was four times bigger than normal and it had moved to the other side of his body, Zarzaur alleges. But in a typical human body the liver exists on the opposite side of the abdomen and it is much larger than a spleen, he said.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, the typical human spleen is roughly the size of an avocado, and the typical human liver is roughly the size of a football.

 

“The family was informed that Mr. Bryan’s spleen, the root of his original symptom profile upon presentation to the hospital, was still in his body and appeared with a small cyst on its surface,” the statement said.

 

Shaknovsky had made a similar mistake in 2023, removing portions of a pancreas instead of an adrenal gland, in a case that was settled privately, Zarzaur said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-surgeon-mistakenly-removes-patients-liver-instead-spleen-causi-rcna169614

  • Author

I'm not even pre med but I think I could tell the difference between a spleen and a liver.  I at least know (in general) where they're at and the size difference.

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