PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. — A Florida doctor was indicted by a grand jury last week after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen during a surgery that took place in 2024. Authorities said it led to the man’s death.
That patient’s grieving widow spoke to Local 10’s Jeff Derderian, saying she hopes that doctor never treats another patient again.
Beverly and Bill Bryan, of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, had been married for 33 years.
But the two kept a rental place in Miramar Beach ― in Florida’s Panhandle.
One day, a trip to the hospital revealed that Bill Bryan, 70, needed surgery.
Beverly Bryan said Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky performed that surgery, but something went terribly wrong.
A deadly mistake, she said.
Prosecutors say Shaknovsky, 44, removed her husband’s liver instead of his spleen by accident, which led to complications.
“His spleen was completely intact,” said Beverly Bryan. “He had a small cyst that ruptured.”
She said afterward, Shaknovsky held her hand, prayed with her and then lied about what happened.
“He offered his condolences, said Bill was in a better place and the Lord would take care of him,” she said.
Beverly Bryan said her husband wanted to go back to Alabama for the surgery, but she said the doctor insisted, pressing and urging them to do it now.
She recalled her last words to her husband.
“I told him that I loved him and he said he loved me,” she said.
Records show Shaknovsky’s Florida medical license is not currently active.
According to a lawsuit, Shaknovsky said that in the chaos and shock of that operating room, he could not identify the organ.
He now faces a second-degree manslaughter charge.
“No surgeon that we’ve talked to can make sense of what he did,” said Bryan’s attorney Joe Zarzaur. “It doesn’t make sense, because no one in the trained field can make sense of it all.”
Beverly Bryan said her husband was literally hours away from being cremated when the medical-mistake was brought to her attention, otherwise she may have never had known.
When asked if the doctor has ever apologized, Bryan didn’t hesitate.
“Not once,” she said. “Not a word.”
Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.