A Florida surgeon has been charged with manslaughter after removing the patient’s liver, not his spleen. He was later arrested while driving passengers for Lyft in a dramatic confrontation, NBC reported on Saturday (IST).
Body camera video showed Walton County sheriff’s deputies approaching, guns drawn, a Mitsubishi sport utility vehicle driven by Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky.
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The 44-year-old surgeon appeared disoriented after officers pulled him from his car and handcuffed him at a busy intersection in Miramar Beach, Florida. Amid the wail of sirens, Shaknovsky told deputies he had a passenger in the back seat.
When he asked officials what it was, the deputy told him it was for manslaughter. Deputies then opened the back door of his car and two women got out, who told authorities they were on vacation and the surgeon had picked them up from the hotel.
The case against Shaknovsky
His arrest came nearly two years after 70-year-old William Bryan died on August 21, 2024, during what was supposed to be laparoscopic surgery to remove his spleen. However, prosecutors alleged that the surgeon removed the patient’s liver, which led to catastrophic blood loss and subsequently to his death. State records show Shaknovsky’s Florida medical license was suspended about a month later.
The surgeon was sued by Bryan’s widow and also faces a medical malpractice lawsuit over a separate operation he performed on another patient, Dorothy Dorsett. According to her son’s lawsuit, the 70-year-old woman died in August 2023, days after Shaknovsky removed the mass but then allegedly failed to take precautions to prevent sepsis. Litigation is ongoing.
According to the Walton County Sheriff’s Office, the 44-year-old surgeon-turned-driver was charged with second-degree manslaughter a week before his arrest and said he and his attorney were given enough notice to turn themselves in before deputies pulled him over.
Corey Dobridnia, a spokeswoman for the Walton County Sheriff’s Office, said Shaknovsky knew a crime was being committed against him and yet he decided to put people in his vehicle and he took that risk,” adding, “he has a felony warrant and a felony stop requires weapons drawn, all of that.”
Shaknovsky, an osteopathic physician, was previously licensed in multiple states, but his licenses in Florida, Alabama and New York were revoked after Bryan’s death.
He is scheduled to stand trial on May 19 and faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of second-degree manslaughter in connection with Bryan’s death.
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What did the court documents reveal?
The court order suspending the license says Shaknovsky recommended the surgery after a 70-year-old patient was admitted to Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital on the Emerald Coast with abdominal pain. An imaging examination reportedly showed a possible enlarged spleen and the presence of blood in the peritoneal cavity, without active bleeding.
He continued to recommend surgery over the next two days, even though the patient expressed a desire to return home to Alabama, according to the filing. On the third day, the document states, Shaknovsky persisted in urging the procedure until the patient finally agreed.
The filing further alleges that Shaknovsky continued the surgery even after the patient went into cardiac arrest during the operation.
The surgeon became the driver
According to his Lyft profile, Shaknovsky has been a driver for the ride-sharing platform for more than a year, with five-star ratings for more than 3,000 rides.
A spokesperson for the ride-sharing service said in a statement that the company is willing to support law enforcement in the investigation.
“Once we learned of the driver’s arrest, we removed them from the Lyft platform and have been in contact with the ride requester to offer support,” the spokeswoman said.
