The incident occurred in August. (Representative image)

A 70-year-old man in the United States died on an operating table after the doctor accidentally removed the wrong organ during surgery. New York Post reported. William Bryan and his wife Beverly were visiting their rental property in Florida last month when he suddenly began experiencing pain in his left lower abdomen. They immediately went to Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital, where the 70-year-old was admitted for further tests due to concerns about a spleen abnormality. Doctors then convinced the man to undergo surgery at the hospital. However, the surgery resulted in the man’s death after the doctor mistakenly removed the man’s liver during the operation before the surgeon attempted to pass the organ off as an “enlarged spleen,” according to an attorney representing the man’s widow.

In a Facebook post, the law firm claimed that general surgeon Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky and the hospital’s chief medical officer, Dr. Christopher Bacani, persuaded the reluctant family to allow the 70-year-old to undergo surgery at the hospital because he “could otherwise suffer severe complications if he left the hospital.” Mr. Bryan agreed with the doctors’ opinion and underwent a hand-assisted laparoscopic splenectomy in August. “The records indicate that both doctors were involved in the discussion regarding the appropriateness of the planned procedure and the facility’s capabilities to perform such a procedure,” the law firm wrote.

In the middle of the surgery, Mr Shaknovsky removed Mr Bryan’s liver by severing the main vascular system that supplies the liver. The surgical incision resulted in “immediate and catastrophic blood loss, resulting in death,” the Facebook post said.

The law firm claimed that after doctors mistakenly removed Bryan’s liver, the general surgeon referred to the organ as a “spleen,” which was not identified as a liver until after the man’s death. Surgeons, meanwhile, explained to Bryan’s wife that her husband’s “spleen” was so diseased that it was four times its normal size and had migrated to the other side of his body. “The family was informed that Bryan’s spleen, the cause of his original symptom profile upon presentation to the hospital, was still inside his body and appeared with a small cyst on its surface,” the law firm said.

In the human body, the liver is located in the upper right of the abdominal cavity, just below the diaphragm and above the stomach, right kidney and intestine. The spleen, on the other hand, is located in the upper left of the abdomen next to the stomach and is significantly smaller and lighter than the liver.

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In the Facebook post, Zarzaur Law claimed that Dr. Shaknovsky had already undergone a “wrong-site surgery” in 2023, in which he allegedly removed part of a patient’s pancreas instead of performing the planned adrenalectomy.

Beverly Brayns hired the law firm to get “justice” for her husband and hopes the general surgeon stops treating other patients. “My husband died while lying helpless on Dr. Shaknovsky’s operating table. I do not want anyone else to die due to his incompetence in a hospital that should have known or knew he had previously committed drastic, life-altering surgical errors,” the widow said in a statement through the law firm. She added that she is pushing for both civil and criminal action related to her husband’s death.

North Walton Doctor’s Hospital has “distanced itself” from Shaknovsky and removed all photos and references to the doctor from its website, the law firm said. Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital said it is investigating the man’s death.

According to the postWhat appeared to be a small cyst was later discovered on Mr Bryan’s spleen, which was believed to be the cause of the pain for which he was admitted to hospital.