Thursday, April 16, 2026 - A Florida, U.S. doctor is facing charges of second-degree manslaughter following a fatal surgery where he allegedly removed a patient's liver instead of the spleen.
Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, 44, was arrested Monday, April 13,
2026, after a two-year investigation into the August 2024 d£ath of a
70-year-old Alabama man conducted by local and state law enforcement in
collaboration with medical authorities, the Walton County Sheriff's Office
said.
Dr. Shaknovsky, who is licensed to practice medicine in
Florida, Alabama and New York, is now being held at the Walton County Jail on a
$75,000 bond, according to correction records, after a grand jury returned an
indictment. His medical licenses were all suspended or turned in before his
recent arrest.
"The Grand Jury has spoken, and our responsibility is
to ensure the charges are carried out through the proper legal process,"
Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson said in a statement.
When the Alabama man first arrived at Ascension Sacred Heart
Emerald Coast in Miramar Beach with abdominal pain on Aug. 18, 2024, Dr.
Shaknovsky recommended surgery.
The patient refused an operation at first and wanted to return home, Florida
health officials said in a 2024 emergency application to suspend Dr.
Shaknovsky's license. Ultimately, the patient conceded under pressure from Dr.
Shaknovsky, an osteopathic physician, to a laparoscopic
splenectomy.
The procedure was scheduled late in the day on Aug. 21,
2024, after 5 p.m., raising concerns among the operating room staff who noted
they only had a skeletal crew available. Staff also raised concerns about the
doctor's lack of experience and skills in the emergency department.
Operating room staff "knew splenectomies were
complicated procedures that could quickly deteriorate and were not regularly
performed at Ascension," documents read. Dr. Shaknovsky started the
laparoscopic procedure but then elected to convert to an open procedure,
without properly documenting the reasons, the emergency application said.
During the operation, the patient started to hemorrhage, and his vitals
dropped, so the operating staff called an emergency code.
A spokesperson for Ascension Sacred Heart said in a
statement that "Dr. Shaknovsky was never a Sacred Heart Emerald Coast
employee and has not practiced at any of our facilities since August 2024. We
remain focused on upholding the standards our patients and community expect of
us."
Dr. Shaknovsky said in an interview with officials following
the operation that he tried to control the patient's bleeding. He claimed he
blindly fired a stapling device into the abdomen, removing an organ he presumed
to be the spleen, despite later admitting he was unable to properly identify it
due to shock and chaos. He also alleged that the patient's spleen was grossly
enlarged and the liver was unusually positioned, contributing to his
misidentification.
Accounts from operating room witnesses paint a chaotic scene
and markedly different recollections. Upon opening the patient's abdomen, a
megacolon allegedly burst, obstructing visibility, the emergency application
said. While staff attempted to clear the field, Dr. Shaknovsky is said to have
identified a pulsing vessel, stapled it, and continued to dissect even as the
abdomen was full of blood, failing to ask for essential tools like a clamp or
cauterizer.
Dr. Shaknovsky identified a vessel that he intended to cut
and noted that he could feel it pulsing under his finger. He told the staff
member assisting him.
He ultimately removed the liver, identifying it as the
spleen, an organ distinct in size, color, and location.
Staff members said in the emergency application that they
were reportedly shocked by this misidentification.
Despite resuscitation efforts, the patient was pronounced
d£ad.
Dr. Shaknovsky informed staff that the cause was a ruptured
splenic artery aneurysm and insisted that the removed organ be labeled as a
"spleen" for pathology. However, the medical examiner found no
evidence of a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm.
Dr. Shaknovsky has denied wrongdoing, the emergency
application said, asserting that the patients' organs presented with abnormal
anatomy or had "migrated" to an unusual location.
Applications to suspend or revoke Dr. Shaknovsky's physician
licenses document a checkered medical history. In an application for an
emergency suspension of the Florida medical license of Dr. Shaknovsky, which
was issued in 2020, Florida health officials detail another incident
leading to patient harm.
Just two months before the fatal surgery, Dr. Shaknovsky had
operated on a 58-year-old man, removing a portion of his pancreas instead of
the adrenal gland during an adrenalectomy, according to Florida's Department of
Health.
Dr. Shaknovsky documented removing the left adrenal gland
and later claimed the adrenal gland had "migrated." The patient
suffered permanent harm from this error, department of health officials said.
The Florida Department of Health suspended Dr. Shaknovsky's license in
September 2024, according to public records.
The wife of the patient who died in 2024 contacted the
Alabama Board of Licenses to alert them to Dr. Shaknovsky's alleged role in her
husband's d£ath. The Alabama Board of Medical Examiners filed a complaint
against Dr. Shaknovsky, temporarily suspending his license, which he has held
since 2016 in Alabama.
Dr. Shaknovsky "may constitute an immediate danger to
his patients and the public," the Alabama Medical Licensure Commission
said in its order.
He surrendered his license on Nov. 7, 2024, according to
Alabama's medical license records. The Alabama application to suspend Dr.
Shaknovsky's license documented two prior operating mistakes in 2023 — one of
which, the documents said, led to another fatality.
His New York state medical license, which he has held since 2015, was suspended in 2025.
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