License suspended.
https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/surgeon-who-fired-a-stapling-device-blindly-into-patient-and-removed-the-wrong-organ-killing-him-loses-license/
After multiple wrong-site surgeries that resulted in permanent harm or death — including a procedure in which a patient’s liver was removed instead of his spleen — a surgeon’s license has been suspended in Florida.
The Sunshine State’s Department of Health and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo ordered an emergency suspension of Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky’s license to practice osteopathic medicine Tuesday. The 21-page order detailed the troubling circumstances surrounding two botched surgeries — and Shaknovsky’s apparent attempts to cover up his own errors.
The order first described the case of a patient identified as “G.D.” — a 58-year-old man scheduled for surgery to remove his left adrenal gland at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast hospital. During the procedure, Shaknovsky did not remove the man’s adrenal gland at all, but rather, removed a portion of the man’s pancreas. The order noted the stark anatomical differences between the two organs: adrenal glands are small triangular glands located on the top of each kidney while the pancreas is a large gland located behind the stomach and surrounded by the gallbladder, liver, and spleen.
When Shaknovsky was alerted to the error, he claimed the adrenal gland had “migrated” to a different part of the patient’s body. The patient suffered permanent harm as a result of the surgical error.
The suspension order next detailed the case of 70-year-old William Bryan, identified in the order as W.B.,” an Alabama man who came to Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast hospital for tests to assess an abnormal spleen.
After medical staff advised Bryan that immediate surgery was required to prevent serious spleen-related complications, Bryan reluctantly agreed to an emergency laparoscopic splenectomy. The operation was scheduled for 4 p.m., and per the order, “staff were concerned with it being done so late in the day because they only had a skeleton crew.”
Further, said the order, “OR staff knew splenectomies were complicated procedures that could quickly deteriorate and were not regularly performed at Ascension.”
Perhaps most damning, the order said, “OR staff had concerns that Dr. Shaknovsky did not have the skill level to safely perform this procedure.”
Ultimately, according to the order, Shaknovsky arrived at the surgery an hour late, and opted to change course for the surgery, converting a laparoscopic procedure to an open one to mitigate difficulties in visibility. The order went on to note that Shaknovsky first reported that he was able to control a ruptured aneurysm during the procedure, but later said that he had never been able to control the aneurysm.
It also said that Shaknovksy “fired a stapling device blindly” into Bryan’s abdomen, removed an organ that he “believed” was the spleen, but was so affected by the “shock and chaos of the situation” that he was unable to properly identify the organ that he actually removed.
