Draft:Thomas Shaknovsky

• Comment: Not reviewing, unable to decide. The question here is that the subject is presumed innocent and it's WP:BLP1E territory. If found not guilty then would the article still stand, based just on the clinical registration issue? And it may be WP:TOOSOON? ChrysGalley (talk) 08:24, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

• Comment: ChrysGalley Thanks for reviewing. Re: WP:BLP1E - he sourcing covers several distinct incidents, not one, and the subject's role is central. Notability goes beyond the criminal case, the surgery itself received large amounts of coverage and discussion at the time. Re: WP:TOOSOON - the incident happened 2 years ago and has received sustained and intense national coverage since then. Happy to edit any section that you think needs it though. Primed Mover (talk) 12:29, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

Thomas Shaknovsky (born 1981) is a former American osteopathic surgeon. In August 2024, a patient died during an operation that Shaknovsky performed at the Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast hospital in Florida. Allegedly, Shaknovsky removed the patient's liver instead of his spleen during a laparoscopic splenectomy. The death led Florida regulators to suspend his medical license and prompted a wrongful-death lawsuit by the patient's widow. In April 2026, a Walton County grand jury indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter; he pleaded not guilty and, as of 2026, awaits trial.

Education and training

Shaknovsky earned a bachelor's degree from Loyola University Chicago. He then completed a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree at Midwestern University's Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2009^[1] and finished a general surgery residency at Palisades Medical Center, affiliated with Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey.^[2] He also completed fellowships in burn surgery at the John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County in Chicago and in minimally invasive surgery at Richmond University Medical Center in Staten Island.

Career

After graduation, he was employed as a general surgeon at Southeast Alabama Medical Center in Dothan, Alabama.^[2] He later practiced as a general surgeon with an office in Destin, Florida.^[1][3] He held medical licenses in Florida, Alabama, and New York,^[4] and treated patients at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast, where he practiced through the cancer-care provider GenesisCare.^[5] He was also a medical officer in the United States Army Reserve. According to service records obtained by the Jacksonville television station First Coast News, Shaknovsky held the rank of lieutenant colonel and was assigned to the 946th Medical Detachment, part of the 5th Medical Brigade;^[6] the Army Reserve stated that he had not provided military surgical services since 2021 and that it acted to bar him from delivering military medical care after learning of the 2024 surgery.^[7]

Earlier allegations

In May 2023, Shaknovsky removed part of a patient's pancreas instead of an adrenal gland; the patient survived, and the malpractice claim was settled in August 2024 for $400,000.^[8][1] The application that Florida regulators later filed to suspend his license documented additional 2023 operations; the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners stated that in one, he performed a bowel resection rather than a scheduled ileostomy, causing a perforation.^[4] In a separate case, 76-year-old Dorothy Dorsett died on August 4, 2023, after surgery. A Florida Agency for Health Care Administration investigation found that Shaknovsky and other physicians had failed to use diagnostic testing appropriately and had delayed imaging needed to treat sepsis; Dorsett's son filed a lawsuit in October 2025.^[9]

Death of William Bryan

In August 2024, William "Bill" Bryan, a 70-year-old man from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, was vacationing near Destin, Florida, with his wife, when he developed left-sided abdominal pain.^[10] He was admitted to Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast, where Shaknovsky diagnosed a problem with his spleen and recommended surgery. Bryan initially declined, wishing to return home to Alabama, but agreed after his condition worsened.^[4][10]

The operation, a laparoscopic splenectomy, was scheduled for the evening of August 21, 2024. According to the Florida Department of Health's emergency suspension order, operating-room staff raised concerns about the limited staffing available late in the day and about Shaknovsky's experience with the procedure.

Shaknovsky began the surgery and then converted it to an open operation without fully documenting his reasons.^[4][11] Bryan hemorrhaged during the surgery and died on the operating table.^[4][12]

An autopsy found that Bryan's spleen was intact and in its normal position and that his liver had been removed.^[13] The medical examiner who reviewed the death said the liver had been cleanly dissected away from the diaphragm with the surrounding structures untouched, and that the spleen remained in place with no sign of aneurysm or rupture.^[14] The medical examiner classified the manner of death as homicide, attributing it to blood loss and the removal of the patient's liver.^[15] Shaknovsky's operative report did not mention the liver and described the removal of a deformed spleen.^[10] Bryan's widow, a registered nurse, was initially told that her husband had died from a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm and did not learn the true cause until the autopsy results were released.^[3][16]

License suspension

In September 2024, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo signed an emergency order suspending Shaknovsky's license, finding that he could pose an immediate danger to patients.^[4][11] Alabama and New York also acted against his licenses: he surrendered his Alabama license, which he had held since 2016, on November 7, 2024,^[4] and New York issued a temporary suspension on May 20, 2025.^[1]

Civil lawsuit

On January 30, 2025, Beverly Bryan filed a wrongful-death suit in Walton County against Shaknovsky, the hospital operator Sacred Heart Health System, GenesisCare, and four nurses.^[13] The suit alleges that staff had warned the hospital's chief medical officer about Shaknovsky's lack of surgical skills and about conditions at the facility, that the hospital obtained a waiver of autopsy through deception, and that hospital leaders altered records to conceal the error.^[13][10] According to the complaint, Shaknovsky recorded the cause of death as a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm, and a nurse followed Beverly Bryan into the parking lot and misrepresented how her husband had died in order to obtain her signature waiving an autopsy.^[13][15] It also alleges that Shaknovsky directed staff to label the removed organ as a spleen.^[3] The allegations have not been tested in court, and the hospital has said Shaknovsky was never its employee and had not practiced at its facilities since August 2024.^[9] The hospital also said that surgeons practicing at its facilities, whether employed or affiliated, are required to meet rigorous credentialing standards and to hold a valid state license.^[7]

In an eight-hour deposition given in November 2025, Shaknovsky said he had believed he was removing Bryan's spleen and described himself as "forever traumatized" by the death.^[8]

Criminal charge

In April 2026, a grand jury indicted Shaknovsky on one count of manslaughter.^[12][4] He was released on a $75,000 bond and faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.^[4][10] Shaknovsky pleaded not guilty.^[16][8]

References

Category:Living people Category:1980s births Category:American surgeons