MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla — It's been almost three months since Beverly Bryan lost her husband of 33 years, William "Bill" Bryan.
“I'm a RN, been in the medical field, working full time since 1979, so if this could happen to me it could happen to anybody,” Beverly Bryan said.
She still has so many questions.
“Certainly, the first question is how could any surgeon make such a grave, grievous, impossible error?” Bryan said.
Days after the 70-year-old Navy veteran died on the operating table, she found out the doctor had removed her husband’s liver instead of his spleen.
“It’s just been a nightmare,” Bryan said.
The Alabama couple was visiting the Destin area to work on their rental condo in August when Bill Bryan got a pain in his side. She took him to the emergency room at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast in Miramar Beach.
“He had a CT scan, and they told us he had a mass ...on his spleen,” Bryan said.
He was admitted to the hospital where she says Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky told them her husband needed surgery.
“I told him that we didn't want to have surgery in Florida that we wanted to go home,” Bryan said. “He said, well, you can't make it home with him. He'll bleed to death. He's bleeding inside.”
She searched for information online about the surgeon.
“I googled him up and down and sideways, you know, trying to find out about him and the hospital, you know, and I didn't find anything bad about him,” Bryan said. “As a matter of fact, his reviews were all wonderful, which I've been told since then, his reviews and websites had been scrubbed of bad reviews.”
With worsening pain, she says her husband decided to have his spleen removed at the hospital. That was the last time she saw him alive.
“Shaknovsky came out and told us that he had a splenic aneurysm that had ruptured and that's what had caused him to bleed to death. And that his spleen was enlarged. It was four times the normal size,” Bryan recalled the doctor telling her.
It wasn't until her husband had an autopsy that she learned what had really happened.
“His spleen was intact, completely intact. It had a small cyst that had ruptured, but his liver was completely gone,” Bryan said. “I just couldn't believe it.”
A month after her husband’s death, the Florida Surgeon General ordered the emergency suspension of Shaknovsky’s osteopathic physician’s license. The report points out, “spleens and livers are anatomically distinct, have different consistencies, and are different colors. Additionally, the spleen is located on the left side of the abdomen while the liver is on the right side.”
The emergency suspension order noted, “The staff looked at the readily identifiable liver on the table and were shocked when Shaknovsky told them it was a spleen. One staff member felt sick to their stomach.”
“I want to see his license actually revoked in Florida,” Bryan said.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo wrote that Dr. Shaknovsky, "presents an immediate, serious danger to the health, welfare and safety of the public" citing "egregious surgical errors" and "egregious conduct of fabricating medical records". The 21-page report spells out a history of problems.
In May 2023, it says Shaknovsky removed a portion of a man's pancreas instead of his adrenal gland at that same hospital and claimed the adrenal gland had "migrated" to a different part of the body. Florida Insurance Regulation records show that the patient suffered permanent injuries including loss of fingers and loss or damage to his organs. The case was settled for $400,000 dollars, according to the Florida Insurance Regulation records.
“I wish I had known, of course, and I wish that was public record somewhere, which it probably is, but the extensive amount of research that you have to do to find those records are really cumbersome and wouldn't be something that the average person would know,” Bryan said.|
The Florida Health Department's public database lists disciplinary records for osteopaths and medical doctors, but that only becomes public information after a complaint is filed and the board takes action.
“Nine times out of ten, they settle,” attorney Joe Zarzaur, who represents Bryan, said. When a lawsuit is settled oftentimes no complaint is ever filed, according to Zarzaur.
“Many times, there's a non-disparagement clause which says you're not going to say anything bad about the other physician. In fact, the settlement with this Shaknovsky has a confidentiality agreement and a non-disparagement clause,” Zarzaur said.
According to an Agency for Healthcare Administration report, in August 2023 another patient operated on by Shaknovsky at the same hospital died from infection complications, following a surgery to remove part of the colon.
The report says the hospital identified three surgical errors involving the same surgeon over a fifteen-month period and six staff expressed concerns about Dr. Shaknovsky 's surgical practices to the operating room manager and/or operating room director, but no further action was initiated. Zarzaur believes Bill Bryan’s death could have been prevented.
The hospital declined our request for an interview but sent us a statement saying, “Dr. Shaknovsky has never been a Sacred Heart Emerald Coast employee and no longer practices medicine at Sacred Heart Emerald Coast or any of our facilities. Our organization does not discuss specific patient cases and will not provide further comments.”
“One layer of reform would be hospitals should have more responsibility for the physicians they put in their hospitals, they shouldn't be able to hide behind the independent contractor status of the doctor. Because you whether you know this or not, the first thing they ask you to sign when you walk in the door at the hospital is an acknowledgment that everybody that's treating you, that a physician is not their employee and you're not going to sue them for their actions,” Zarzaur said.
While the Walton County Sheriff's Office investigates what happened to Bill Bryan to determine if there was any criminal wrongdoing, his widow and her attorney plan to sue and take this case to trial.
“I'm much more interested in being sure that this doesn't happen to anyone else and that he is not just suspended from practicing medicine, but his license is revoked because apparently that is a process and at this point it's only been suspended and not revoked,” Bryan said. “And i would like to see him criminally prosecuted.”
A month later, Shaknovsky’s osteopathic physician license was suspended in Florida, his license was temporarily suspended in Alabama where he also practices.
First Coast News reached out to Shaknovsky and his attorney, Bill Jackson. Jackson said due to the pending nature of legal proceedings no statements of interviews will be given at this time.
Corey Dobridnia, a spokesperson for the Walton County Sheriff’s Office said, “Dr. Shaknovsky's attorney has been in contact with our agency since the start of the investigation. His office has complied with all subpoenas and directives. At this time, Dr. Shaknovsky has declined to provide a statement to our investigators.”
The Walton County Sheriff’s Office says it’s working closely with the State Attorney’s Office, the Medical Examiner’s Office and the Florida Department of Health.
“Once the investigation is complete, the facts and evidence will be provided to and reviewed with the State Attorney’s Office to determine whether criminal wrongdoing is established in this incident,” Dobridnia said.
The Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine will ultimately decide if his license is revoked in Florida.
To look up a healthcare practitioner in Florida to see if they have any discipline on file, click here.
