A Florida law firm asserts that last month, during a procedure, a surgeon killed a 70-year-old patient on the operating table by accidentally removing the man’s liver rather than his spleen.
William Bryan of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, passed away during the treatment on August 21 at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital, according to a news release from Zarzaur Law.
According to the press statement, William Bryan went to the hospital while on vacation with his wife Beverly because he started experiencing “left-sided flank pain.”
Bryan’s spleen was reportedly the reason for his hospital admission, according to the law company.
“During this operation, 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,” according to the news release.
Shaknovsky is accused by the legal firm of calling the removed liver a spleen. Additionally, it charges Shaknovsky with inadvertently excising a part of a patient’s pancreas in 2023.
“The surgeon told Mrs. Bryan after the procedure that the ‘spleen’ was so diseased that it was four times bigger than usual and had migrated to the other side of Mr. Bryan’s body,” according to the news release. “Typical human anatomy dictates that the liver naturally exists on the opposite side of the abdominal cavity, and it is several times larger than the spleen.”
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According to NBC News, Bryan’s death is being looked into by the Walton County Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement agencies.
Hospital representatives stated, “We take allegations like this very seriously and our leadership team is performing a thorough investigation into this event,” in a statement to USA Today.
Bryan’s widow is being represented by attorney Joe Zarzaur of Zarzaur Law, who claims that she is pursuing both criminal and civil procedures.
