Doctor arrested for allegedly causing a patient’s death after removing the liver instead of the spleen.

A Florida, U.S. croaker is facing charges of alternate- degree manslaughter following a fatal surgery where he allegedly removed a case's liver rather of the spleen.

Thomas Shaknovsky, 44, was arrested Monday, April 13, 2026, after a two- time disquisition into the August 2024 d£ ath of a 70- time-old Alabama man conducted by original and state law enforcement in collaboration with medical authorities, the Walton County Sheriff's Office said.

Shaknovsky, who's certified to exercise drug in Florida, Alabama and New York, is now being held at the Walton County Jail on a$ 75,000 bond, according to correction records, after a grand jury returned an charge. His medical licenses were all suspended or turned in before his recent arrest.

" The Grand Jury has spoken, and our responsibility is to insure the charges are carried out through the proper legal process," Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson said in a statement.

When the Alabama man first arrived at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast in Miramar Beach with abdominal pain on Aug. 18, 2024, Dr. Shaknovsky recommended surgery.

The case refused an operation at first and wanted to return home, Florida health officers said in a 2024 exigency operation to suspend Dr. Shaknovsky's license. Eventually, the case conceded under pressure from Dr. Shaknovsky, an osteopathic croaker , to a laparoscopic splenectomy.

The procedure was listed late in the day on Aug. 21, 2024, after 5 p.m., raising enterprises among the operating room staff who noted they only had a cadaverous crew available. Staff also raised enterprises about the croaker 's lack of experience and chops in the exigency department.

Operating room staff" knew splenectomies were complicated procedures that could snappily deteriorate and were n't regularly performed at Ascent," documents read. Dr. Shaknovsky started the laparoscopic procedure but also tagged to convert to an open procedure, without duly establishing the reasons, the exigency operation said. During the operation, the case started to hemorrhage, and his vitals dropped, so the operating staff called an exigency law.

A prophet for Ascent Sacred Heart said in a statement that" Dr. Shaknovsky was noway a Sacred Heart Emerald Coast hand and has not rehearsed at any of our installations since August 2024. We remain focused on upholding the norms our cases and community anticipate of us."

Shaknovsky said in an interview with officers following the operation that he tried to control the case's bleeding. He claimed he blindly fired a stapling device into the tummy, removing an organ he presumed to be the spleen, despite latterly admitting he was unfit to duly identify it due to shock and chaos. He also contended that the case's spleen was grossly enlarged and the liver was surprisingly deposited, contributing to his misidentification.

Accounts from operating room substantiations paint a chaotic scene and markedly different remembrances. Upon opening the case's tummy, a megacolon allegedly burst, gumming visibility, the exigency operation said. While staff tried to clear the field, Dr. Shaknovsky is said to have linked a pulsing vessel, stapled it, and continued to anatomize indeed as the tummy was full of blood, failing to ask for essential tools like a clamp or cauterizer.

Shaknovsky linked a vessel that he intended to cut and noted that he could feel it pulsing under his cutlet. He told the staff member aiding him.

He eventually removed the liver, relating it as the spleen, an organ distinct in size, color, and position.

Staff members said in the exigency operation that they were reportedly shocked by this misidentification.

Despite reanimation sweats, the case was pronounced d£ announcement.

Shaknovsky informed staff that the cause was a ruptured splenic roadway aneurysm and claimed that the removed organ be labeled as a" spleen" for pathology. still, the medical monitor set up no substantiation of a ruptured splenic roadway aneurysm.

Shaknovsky has denied wrongdoing, the exigency operation said, asserting that the cases' organs presented with abnormal deconstruction or had" migrated" to an unusual position.

operations to suspend or drop Dr. Shaknovsky's croaker licenses validate a checkered medical history. In an operation for an exigency suspense of the Florida medical license of Dr. Shaknovsky, which was issued in 2020, Florida health officers detail another incident leading to patient detriment.

Just two months before the fatal surgery, Dr. Shaknovsky had operated on a 58- time-old man, removing a portion of his pancreas rather of the adrenal gland during an adrenalectomy, according to Florida's Department of Health.

Shaknovsky proved removing the left adrenal gland and latterly claimed the adrenal gland had" migrated." The case suffered endless detriment from this error, department of health officers said. The Florida Department of Health suspended Dr. Shaknovsky's license in September 2024, according to public records.

The woman of the case who failed in 2024 communicated the Alabama Board of Licenses to warn them to Dr. Shaknovsky's alleged part in her hubby's d£ ath. The Alabama Board of Medical Observers filed a complaint against Dr. Shaknovsky, temporarily suspending his license, which he has held since 2016 in Alabama.

Shaknovsky" may constitute an immediate peril to his cases and the public," the Alabama Medical Licensure Commission said in its order.

He surrendered his license on Nov. 7, 2024, according to Alabama's medical license records. The Alabama operation to suspend Dr. Shaknovsky's license proved two previous operating miscalculations in 2023 — one of which, the documents said, led to another casualty.

According to the Alabama Board of Medical Observers in July 2023, Dr. Shaknovsky was listed to perform an ileostomy, an operation that diverts the small intestine through the abdominal wall, but rather decided to perform a bowel resection on the case, which redounded in a perforation. The case was transferred to the ferocious care unit, where she latterly di£ d.

His New York state medical license, which he has held since 2015, was suspended in 2025.