An Alabama husband died on a Florida operating table when the doctor mistakenly removed the man’s liver during surgery before the surgeon attempted to pass off the organ as an “enlarged spleen,” according to a lawyer representing the man’s widow.
William Bryan and his wife Beverly were visiting their rental property in Okaloosa County, Florida last month when he suddenly began experiencing lower left abdominal pain.
The 70-year-old Muscle Shoals, AL resident went to Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital in Walton County, where he was admitted for further tests over concerns about an abnormality of the spleen, Zarzaur Law P.A. said Friday on Facebook.
General Surgeon Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky and Dr. Christopher Bacani, the hospital’s Chief Medical Officer, persuaded the reluctant family for Bryan to undergo surgery at the hospital or he “could experience serious complications if he left the hospital,” the law firm claims.
In the middle of the surgery, Shaknovsky removed Bryan’s liver by transecting the major vasculature supplying the liver
The surgical cut resulted in “immediate and catastrophic blood loss resulting in death,” the post read.
After erroneously removing Bryan’s liver, the general surgeon labeled the organ as a “spleen,” which was only identified as a liver after the man’s death.
