Florida Surgeon Accused of Removing Wrong Organ, Resulting in Patient’s Death

Doctor’s License Suspended After Tragic Surgical Error

The Flori­da Sur­geon Gen­er­al has sus­pend­ed the med­ical license of Dr. Thomas J. Shakvovksy, a prac­tic­ing Osteo­path­ic Physi­cian at Ascen­sion Sacred Heart Emer­ald Coast Hos­pi­tal, after he was accused of remov­ing a patien­t’s liv­er instead of the spleen, result­ing in the patien­t’s death.

Alleged Surgical Mistake and Fabricated Records

Accord­ing to the emer­gency order, Shakvovksy was accused of “repeat­ed egre­gious sur­gi­cal errors” and “egre­gious con­duct of fab­ri­cat­ing med­ical records” in the August 21 death of 70-year-old William Bryan. The order states that Shakvovksy alleged­ly removed Bryan’s liv­er instead of the spleen, lead­ing to “imme­di­ate and cat­a­stroph­ic death.”

Patient’s Death Ruled a Homicide

Bryan’s death was ruled a homi­cide due to “liv­er removed dur­ing splenec­to­my,” accord­ing to the fam­i­ly’s lawyers at Zarza­ur Law P.A. The law firm stat­ed that the news is “dev­as­tat­ing for the health­care indus­try, as the oper­at­ing room is meant to be a place of the high­est lev­el of patient care.”

Previous Surgical Error and Attempt to Cover Up

The order also includ­ed a pre­vi­ous surgery in May 2023 where Shakvovksy alleged­ly removed a por­tion of a patien­t’s pan­creas instead of the left adren­al gland, result­ing in “long-term, per­ma­nent harm.” The order states that Shakvovksy then attempt­ed to cov­er up his mis­take by fab­ri­cat­ing med­ical records and con­vinc­ing staff to label the removed organ as the spleen.

Lack of Skill and Dishonesty Cited

The Sur­geon Gen­er­al argued that Shakvovksy’s “bla­tant dis­re­gard for the truth, fal­si­fi­ca­tion of an oper­a­tive report, and attempt to con­vince OR staff to acqui­esce to his ver­sion of events is a breach of the pub­lic trust.” The order stat­ed that Shakvovksy’s “dis­hon­esty can­not be con­tained to only oper­a­tive reports” and that the pub­lic’s trust in him has been “irrev­o­ca­bly broken.”