WALTON COUNTY, Fla. — A surgeon on Florida’s Panhandle was indicted for second-degree manslaughter in the operating room death of a 70-year-old man in August 2024, authorities said.
According to a news release from the Walton County Sheriff’s Office and online booking records, Thomas Jacob Shaknovsky, 44, of Destin, was indicted by a grand jury.
Shaknovsky, who is a surgeon with Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast, was charged in connection with the Aug. 21, 2024, death of William Bryan, of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, WEAR reported.
The Office of the State Attorney for the First Judicial Circuit announced that a grand jury in Walton County returned the indictment. Shaknovsky was arrested and booked into the Walton County Jail on Monday, according to the television station.
The grand jury found probable cause in handing down the indictment. According to the sheriff’s office, Bryan was scheduled for a laparoscopic splenectomy. Prosecutors said that Shaknovsky removed Bryan’s liver instead of his spleen, causing “catastrophic blood loss” and resulting in the patient’s death.
🚨 44-year-old Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky has been indicted for second-degree manslaughter for the August 2024 operating room death of 70-year-old William Bryan.
— WEAR ABC 3 (@weartv) April 13, 2026
Authorities say Dr. Shaknovsky removed Bryan's liver instead of his spleen.
https://t.co/hGWDBNUVAR
Bryan and his wife traveled from Muscle Shoals for a vacation at their condominium in Destin, WEAR reported. After feeling pain in his left side, Bryan went to Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast in Miramar Beach on Aug. 18, 2024. He became Shaknovsky’s patient and after initially refusing surgery, Bryan underwent a procedure in the operating room three days later, AL.com reported.
A month after Bryan’s death, the state of Florida filed a motion to suspend Shaknovsky’s medical license, the news outlet reported.
The suspension order accused the physician of “repeated egregious surgical errors” and “egregious conduct of fabricating medical records.
After beginning surgery, an aneurysm caused hemorrhaging and Bryan’s vitals to decline, AL.com reported.
Shaknovsky then used a stapling device in Bryan’s abdomen despite not being able to see due to blood accumulation and removed what he “believed to be a spleen,” the suspension order stated.
Although other members of the operating staff knew that the organ removed from Bryan was his liver, Shaknovsky ordered that it be labeled a spleen when sent to pathology.
The order further charged that after Bryan’s death, Shaknovsky claimed that the patient died due to an artery aneurysm rupturing. An autopsy showed otherwise.
”The Grand Jury found probable cause to charge that the actions taken in the operating room constituted criminal conduct under Florida law," the sheriff’s office said.
“Our duty is to follow the facts wherever they lead, without fear or favor,” Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson said in a statement. “The Grand Jury has spoken, and our responsibility is to ensure the charges are carried out through the proper legal process. Our thoughts remain with the victim’s family and their unspeakable loss.
“We are committed to seeing this case through with the professionalism and integrity our community expects.”
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