A man who had a medical emergency while in vacation in Florida died on the operating table after the surgeon mistakenly removed his liver instead of his spleen, according to the patient’s family.
William Bryan, of Alabama, was visiting the Florida panhandle last month when he suddenly began experiencing lower left abdominal pain. He and his wife, Beverly, went to the Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital — which is between Pensacola and Panama City.
Doctors were concerned about an abnormality in his spleen and they admitted him for further testing, the family’s lawyer said.
General Surgeon Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Christopher Bacani persuaded the 70-year-old Bryan to undergo emergency surgery at the hospital or he “could experience serious complications if he left the hospital,” Zarzaur Law P.A. said Friday on Facebook.
Bryan underwent a hand-assisted laparoscopic splenectomy procedure on Aug. 21.
In the middle of the surgery, Shaknovsky removed Bryan’s liver instead of the his spleen, the law firm alleges.
The surgical snafu resulted in “immediate and catastrophic blood loss resulting in death,” the law firm claimed.
After erroneously removing Bryan’s liver, the general surgeon labeled the organ as a “spleen,” the law firm claims. It was only identified as a liver after the man’s death.
Shaknovsky allegedly told Beverly Bryan that her husband’s “‘spleen’ was so diseased that it was four times bigger than usual and had migrated to the other side of (his) body,” the firm alleges.
In a typical human body, the liver is located on the upper right side of the abdominal cavity, just below the diaphragm, and above the stomach, right kidney, and intestines.
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