At the center of this case is William Bryan, a 70-year-old man from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He had been experiencing abdominal pain and traveled to Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital Emerald Coast in Florida after imaging suggested his spleen was enlarged. Dr. Shaknovsky recommended surgery to remove it.
According to court filings, Bryan was initially reluctant. He wanted to return to Alabama rather than undergo the procedure in Florida. Over the next three days, however, Shaknovsky reportedly kept pressing him to go ahead with the surgery right away. On the third day, Bryan agreed. He never made it out of the operating room.
What investigators say happened in the operating room
Based on prosecutors’ accounts and court documents, here is what allegedly took place on August 21, 2024.
Shaknovsky began the laparoscopic splenectomy — a routine procedure to remove the spleen — when Bryan went into cardiac arrest mid-operation. Rather than stopping, Shaknovsky allegedly continued. In the chaos that followed, he removed an organ. It was not the spleen. It was Bryan’s liver.
The liver performs dozens of essential functions — filtering blood, producing proteins, and supporting metabolism. Removing it causes massive, uncontrollable internal bleeding. Bryan died on the table.
What makes this case even more troubling is what Bryan’s family was told afterward. Shaknovsky reportedly informed them that their loved one had died from a ruptured splenic aneurysm. It was only after an autopsy that the truth became clear: Bryan’s spleen was completely intact. His liver was gone.
Court filings indicate that Shaknovsky himself acknowledged removing what he believed was the spleen, but admitted that the cardiac arrest and the resulting chaos in the operating room made it impossible for him to properly identify what he had actually taken out.
The arrest and the charge
On the morning of April 14, 2026, Dr. Shaknovsky was arrested in Miramar Beach, Florida, and transported to the Walton County Jail. The Office of the State Attorney for the First Judicial Circuit announced the charge: second-degree manslaughter.
Under Florida law, second-degree manslaughter involves causing a person’s death through culpable negligence — conduct so reckless that it reflects a fundamental disregard for human life. It is a serious felony that carries significant prison time if a conviction is secured.
Criminal prosecution for what happens inside an operating room is extraordinarily rare in the United States. Most surgical errors, no matter how devastating, are addressed through civil malpractice suits or licensing board reviews. The decision to pursue criminal charges here signals that authorities view this as something far beyond an honest mistake.
This was not the first time — a pattern of alleged errors
Perhaps the most alarming part of this story is what came to light when investigators looked into Shaknovsky’s broader medical history. According to the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners, he has been linked to at least two other alleged surgical errors in the year before Bryan’s death.
May 2023 — a pancreas removed instead of an adrenal gland
During a procedure meant to remove a patient’s left adrenal gland, Shaknovsky allegedly removed part of the pancreas instead. According to the board, that patient also died.
July 2023 — wrong tissue removed, intestine perforated
Just two months later, Shaknovsky allegedly removed part of a patient’s intestine during another surgery, causing a serious gastrointestinal perforation that required emergency treatment.
How did he keep his license?
Once the investigation into Bryan’s death gained momentum, licensing authorities moved — though critics argue they should have moved much sooner. Florida’s Surgeon General issued a 21-page emergency order suspending Shaknovsky’s osteopathic physician license in the fall of 2024. His Alabama medical license was suspended the same year. His New York license followed in 2025.
The fact that it took multiple alleged incidents and at least one patient’s death before any of these suspensions occurred has drawn sharp criticism from patient advocates and legal commentators. The United States has a state-by-state medical licensing system, and that fragmented structure can leave gaps — allowing a physician whose conduct raises serious concerns in one state to continue operating in another.
Shaknovsky graduated from Midwestern University’s Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2009, giving him roughly 15 years of medical practice before his arrests and suspensions.
What this case reveals about medical accountability
This case has reignited a difficult but necessary conversation about how the medical system in America handles surgical errors and physician oversight. A few questions stand out.
Why are criminal charges so rare? Doctors carry malpractice insurance precisely because mistakes happen. Criminal prosecution requires showing that a physician’s conduct crossed a line from negligence into something the law considers criminally reckless — a standard that courts have historically been reluctant to apply to medical professionals. This case appears to be one of the rare exceptions.
What can patients do? No patient can fully control what happens once they are under general anesthesia. But there are practical steps worth taking: checking a surgeon’s disciplinary record through state medical board websites, getting a second opinion before elective procedures, and asking hospitals directly about their surgical safety protocols.
Is the licensing system broken? This case puts that question front and center. A surgeon with two prior alleged wrong-organ incidents arguably should have been reviewed — or suspended — long before a third patient died on his table.
FAQ:
Q.1. Who is Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky?
Ans: He is a Florida-based osteopathic physician who graduated from Midwestern University’s Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2009. He practiced in the Destin area and has since had his medical licenses suspended in Florida, Alabama, and New York following multiple malpractice allegations.
Q.2. What is he charged with?
Ans: He has been indicted on second-degree manslaughter in connection with the August 2024 death of William Bryan, a 70-year-old patient from Alabama. Prosecutors allege Shaknovsky removed Bryan’s liver instead of his spleen, causing fatal hemorrhaging.
Q.3. Did the patient die on the operating table?
Ans: Yes. William Bryan died during the procedure at Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital Emerald Coast from catastrophic internal bleeding after his liver was allegedly removed.
Q.4. Were other patients allegedly harmed?
Ans: According to the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners, Shaknovsky is linked to at least two other surgeries in 2023 in which the wrong organ or tissue was removed, one of which allegedly resulted in a patient’s death. Those cases contributed to the suspension of his medical licenses.
Q.5. Which hospital was involved?
Ans: The surgery was performed at Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital Emerald Coast in Walton County, Florida. The hospital has not been criminally charged in connection with this case.
Accountability in medicine cannot be treated as optional
The arrest of Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky is not just a criminal story. It is a moment that demands honest reflection about how well the American medical system actually protects the patients who place their lives in its hands.
A 70-year-old man from Alabama traveled to Florida in pain, put his faith in a doctor, and did not come home. His family was told he died from a rupture. It took an autopsy to uncover what really happened. That combination — the deception layered on top of the alleged error — is what makes this case feel so deeply personal to so many people who hear it.
The criminal justice system is now doing what the medical licensing system arguably should have done far earlier. Whatever the outcome of the trial, one thing is clear: accountability in medicine — genuine accountability, not just civil settlements — is not a legal technicality. It is a matter of life and death.
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