The widow of an Alabama man has filed a civil lawsuit against the surgeon who mistakenly removed his liver during what was supposed to be a spleen-removal surgery, then attempting to cover up the mistake.

Beverly Bryan, who was married to 70-year-old William Bryan, filed suit in Florida state court Thursday against surgeon Thomas Shaknovsky and the Florida hospital where Bryan’s botched surgery occurred.

The Bryans, residents of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, were spending time at the family’s rental property in Okaloosa County, Florida, when Wiliam suddenly began to experience pain in his left flank. The couple went to Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast (ASHEC) hospital in Florida and Bryan was admitted for tests to assess an abnormal spleen. After medical staff advised Bryan that immediate surgery was required to prevent serious spleen-related complications, he agreed to an emergency laparoscopic splenectomy.

The court filing recounts the surgical error and the surgeon’s response to it in blunt detail:

During this procedure, Defendant Shaknovsky removed Mr. Bryan’s liver and asked for it to be labeled as a “spleen.”

Defendant Shaknovsky’s removal of Mr. Bryan’s liver caused Mr. Bryan’s death.

Defendant Shaknovsky did not admit that he had removed Mr. Bryan’s liver.

Instead, Defendant Shaknovsky maintained to himself and others around him that he had removed Mr. Bryan’s spleen and that Mr. Bryan’s cause of death was a splenicartery aneurysm. He repeated this assertion over and over to numerous staff and other physicians who looked at him like he was crazy.

Medical records attached as exhibits show multiple references to  Bryan’s “spleen,” then later, his “extensive blood loss,” blood transfusion, and eventually, cardiac arrest. However, the corresponding  pathology report said that what had been labeled Bryan’s spleen had actually been his liver.

Bryan’s wrong-site surgery was not Shankovsky’s first mistake, said the filing. Rather, they alleged, the surgeon caused another patient’s death the prior year when he accidentally perforated the patient’s bowel during a gall bladder removal. Shankovsky took a leave of absence following that incident, said the complaint.

“By October of 2023, Defendant ASHEC and Defendant Ascension knew or should have known that they had a consistently negligent and dangerous surgeon on its staff who needed to be permanently stripped of his surgical privileges in order to protect the community,” asserted the filing. Then, in the next year, Shaknovksy was involved in several other botched surgeries, including a wrong-site hernia surgery said the filing.

Despite all the warnings, however, the hospital, “allowed Defendant Shaknovsky to continue operating in an unrestricted fashion, in part, because he was making the hospital money,” alleged the plaintiffs.

In the complaint, plaintiffs argued that the hospital  knew or should have known that “nurses typically feel uncomfortable in reporting adverse events related to surgeons,” and should have developed their safety protocols accordingly.

Further, according to the filing, Shaknovksy was experiencing so many adverse surgical during his first five months at the hospital that complaints were being made by patients to the Florida Department of Health, and that the doctor, “often invoked religious symbols and concepts” in an effort to redirect conversations related to complications after surgeries.

The family asks for unspecified damages over $50,000.

Attorney Joe Zarzaur, who represents the family, said in a statement:

This heartbreaking loss has devastated the family of William Bryan, and we are seeking justice for this senseless tragedy. Dr. Shaknovsky’s failure to meet the accepted standard of care and Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast’s involvement in the alleged cover up has caused irreparable harm, and no family should have to endure such grief due to medical negligence. We are committed to holding these actors accountable for their actions.

You can read the full filing here.