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Florida surgeon ‘devastated’ over death of patient after removing liver instead of spleen
(www.theguardian.com)
Thomas Shaknovsky botched the surgery of William Bryan, 70, who died on the operating table
According to Shaknovksy’s deposition, after removing Bryan’s liver, the surgeon instructed a nurse to label the organ as a “spleen” – and he also identified it as a spleen in Bryan’s postoperative notes. Shaknovsky later said he had been “mentally compromised” at the time of Bryan’s death, explaining that he was “devastated, demoralized, crying over his passing, felt that I failed him”.
Apparently you should have failed your medical board exam. How TF did he pass it?
Reading the report that was posted last time this was discussed it was equally the fault of the hospital as it was the doctors. Apparently he had a bunch of botched surgeries before this one, he was sent to a Continuing Medical Education (CME) program where he failed his evaluation, and he was allowed to take it again after the hospital intervened and he came back to work.
The hospital had reporting systems that nurses and tech were supposed to use to report issues such as these, nobody did even though after they were interviewed they said they had concerns about that specific doctor such as him being late to scheduled operations and other issues. Some nurses stated that they would not bring family to the hospital if they knew that specific doctor was on rotation. The operation where he killed this guy also started late in the afternoon and the doctor didn't perform a splenectomy before this one.
The operation report was also quite surreal. Apparently they started the surgery laparoscopically but then the doctor decided to convert it into a normal surgery because he couldn't see properly. Once they opened the guy the nurses noticed that he had an enlarged colon that was blocking most of the surgical field and this was not mentioned in the post-op report even once. Then the doctor started cutting and caused a hemorrhage that made what visibility there was even worse. He continued the operation and removed what he called the spleen. Most of the operating tech immediately noticed it wasn't the spleen since even an enlarged spleen doesn't usually get over 800 grams. The thing he pulled out was almost 2 kilograms. Also apparently a different surgeon walked into the room and pointed at the organ on the table and asked what that is. The doctor said: "It's the spleen." to which the other surgeon retorted: "That's no fucking spleen" before storming out. Then they sent it to a pathologist which said that he didn't even need to put it under the microscope to see that it wasn't a spleen.
The coroner that did the autopsy of the dead man stated that the spleen was untouched in the place where it should be but the liver has been surgically resected with the surgeon cutting through the portal vein without any evidence of clamping.
Edit: Here is the report if anyone wants to look through it themselves.
https://zarzaurlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/AHCA-Report-1.pdf
Retaliation is very real in the medical system.
I gave family in the medical industry. They frequently share how hospitals protect expensive doctors/specialists.
Yeah I did technical support for a hospital and everyone was terrified of pissing doctors off because you absolutely would be sided against if they complained about you. I can't imagine how much worse that situation is for the nurses that had to work with them every day.