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Florida doctor accused of removing the wrong organ from an elderly patient, killing him, police say

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Ana Maria Soler
Ana Maria Soler is a digital content producer for CBS Miami and the South region.
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Ana Maria Soler

/ AP

A grand jury indicted a Florida doctor on a manslaughter charge for allegedly removing a patient's liver instead of his spleen during a 2024 surgery.

The prosecutor for the First Judicial Circuit on Monday announced the charge of second-degree manslaughter against Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky.

Prosecutors said that during an Aug. 21, 2024, surgery, which was scheduled to be a laparoscopic splenectomy, Shaknovsky removed the victim's liver instead of his spleen. That resulted in "catastrophic blood loss and the patient's death on the operating table," law enforcement officials wrote in a press release. The patient was a 70-year-old man from Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

"Our duty is to follow the facts wherever they lead, without fear or favor," Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson said in a statement.

wrong-organ-doctor.jpg
The Office of the State Attorney for the First Judicial Circuit announced that a Walton County Grand Jury has returned an indictment charging Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky with second-degree manslaughter in the August 2024 death of a 70‑year‑old man from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Walton County Sheriff's Office

Available court records did not name an attorney for Shaknovsky.

Florida suspended Shaknovsky's medical license after the surgery. Records show he voluntarily surrendered his medical license in Alabama after regulators sought to revoke it.

The press release also said that Shavnosky was taken into custody in Miramar Beach on Monday morning, and he is currently in Walton County Jail, where he waits for his first court appearance. 

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