2026年4月14日 / 美国东部时间下午5:54 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
一名佛罗里达医生面临二级过失杀人指控，此前他被指在一场致命手术中误将患者的肝脏当作脾脏摘除。
沃尔顿县警长办公室表示，44岁的托马斯·沙克诺夫斯基医生于周一被捕，此前当地和州执法部门与医疗当局合作，对2024年8月一名70岁阿拉巴马州男子的死亡事件展开了为期两年的调查。
据惩教记录显示，沙克诺夫斯基医生持有佛罗里达、阿拉巴马和纽约州的行医执照，大陪审团起诉后，他目前被关押在沃尔顿县监狱，保释金为7.5万美元。在此次被捕前，他的所有行医执照均已被吊销或主动上交。
“大陪审团已经作出裁决，我们的职责是确保指控通过正当法律程序推进，”沃尔顿县警长迈克尔·阿德金森在一份声明中说道。
混乱的手术现场
2024年8月18日，这名阿拉巴马州男子因腹痛前往米拉马尔海滩的圣心医院翡翠海岸分院就诊，沙克诺夫斯基医生建议进行手术。
佛罗里达州卫生官员在2024年紧急吊销沙克诺夫斯基医生执照的申请文件中提到，患者最初拒绝手术，希望回家。最终，这位整骨医生向患者施压，患者最终同意接受腹腔镜脾切除术。
手术定于2024年8月21日傍晚5点后进行，这引发了手术室工作人员的担忧，他们表示当时仅能凑齐基本人手。工作人员还对沙克诺夫斯基医生在急诊科缺乏经验和技能表示担忧。
手术室工作人员“深知脾切除术是复杂手术，病情可能迅速恶化，且圣心医院并不常规开展此类手术”，文件中写道。紧急申请文件显示，沙克诺夫斯基医生启动了腹腔镜手术，但随后决定转为开放手术，却未妥善记录变更原因。手术期间，患者开始大出血，生命体征下降，手术室工作人员紧急呼叫了急救代码。
圣心医院的一位发言人在一份声明中表示：“沙克诺夫斯基医生从未是圣心医院翡翠海岸分院的雇员，自2024年8月起，他也未在我院任何分院行医。我们始终致力于维护患者和社区对我们的期望标准。”
术后，沙克诺夫斯基医生在接受官员采访时称，他曾努力控制患者的出血情况。他表示，自己盲目地向腹腔内使用了缝合器，摘除了他认为是脾脏的器官，但后来承认由于患者处于休克状态且现场混乱，他无法正确识别器官。他还声称患者的脾脏异常肿大，肝脏位置异常，导致他出现误判。
手术室目击者的描述呈现出一片混乱的场景，且与沙克诺夫斯基的说法大相径庭。紧急申请文件称，打开患者腹腔后，据称出现了巨结肠破裂，遮挡了手术视野。当工作人员试图清理手术区域时，沙克诺夫斯基医生却识别出一根搏动的血管，对其进行了缝合，随后继续进行解剖操作，即便腹腔内充满血液，也未请求使用止血钳或烧灼器等必要工具。
沙克诺夫斯基医生定位到一根他打算切断的血管，表示能感觉到血管在手指下搏动。他对协助他的工作人员说：“这太吓人了。”他最终摘除了肝脏，却将其当作脾脏——该器官在大小、颜色和位置上均与脾脏截然不同。
急诊申请文件中提到，工作人员对这一误判感到震惊。
尽管进行了复苏抢救，患者最终还是被宣布死亡。沙克诺夫斯基医生告知工作人员，死因是脾动脉瘤破裂，并坚持要求病理科将摘除的器官标注为“脾脏”。然而，法医并未发现脾动脉瘤破裂的证据。
紧急申请文件显示，沙克诺夫斯基医生否认存在不当行为，称患者的器官存在解剖异常或“移位”至了异常位置。
劣迹斑斑的行医史
吊销或撤销沙克诺夫斯基医生行医执照的申请文件披露了其劣迹斑斑的行医记录。在2020年佛罗里达州卫生部门针对沙克诺夫斯基医生的紧急吊销执照申请中，详细记载了另一起导致患者受伤的事件。就在这场致命手术发生前两个月，沙克诺夫斯基医生在一次肾上腺切除术中，误将患者胰腺的一部分当作肾上腺摘除，据佛罗里达州卫生部门消息。
沙克诺夫斯基医生记录称自己摘除了左侧肾上腺，随后又称肾上腺发生了“移位”。卫生部门官员表示，此次失误导致患者永久性损伤。据公开记录显示，佛罗里达州卫生部门于2024年9月吊销了沙克诺夫斯基医生的执照。
2024年去世患者的妻子联系了阿拉巴马州执照委员会，举报沙克诺夫斯基医生涉嫌导致其丈夫死亡。阿拉巴马州医学考试委员会对沙克诺夫斯基医生提起诉讼，临时吊销了他的行医执照——他自2016年起持有该州执照。阿拉巴马州医疗执照委员会在其命令中称，沙克诺夫斯基医生“可能对其患者和公众构成直接危险”。
根据阿拉巴马州医疗执照记录，他于2024年11月7日主动上交了执照。阿拉巴马州吊销沙克诺夫斯基医生执照的申请文件显示，他在2023年还曾有过两起手术失误，其中一起导致患者死亡。
据阿拉巴马州医学考试委员会2023年7月的文件显示，沙克诺夫斯基医生原本计划为患者进行回肠造口术——一种将小肠通过腹壁引出的手术，但最终却选择了肠切除术，导致患者肠道穿孔。患者被转入重症监护室，随后不治身亡。
他自2015年起持有的纽约州行医执照也于2025年被吊销。
沙克诺夫斯基医生未回应置评请求。
Florida doctor indicted after allegedly removing patient’s liver instead of spleen in fatal surgery
April 14, 2026 / 5:54 PM EDT / CBS News
A Florida doctor is facing charges of second-degree manslaughter following a fatal surgery where he allegedly removed a patient’s liver instead of the spleen.
Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, 44, was arrested Monday after a two-year investigation into the August 2024 death of a 70-year-old Alabama man conducted by local and state law enforcement in collaboration with medical authorities, the Walton County Sheriff’s Office said.
Dr. Shaknovsky, who is licensed to practice medicine in Florida, Alabama and New York, is now being held at the Walton County Jail on a $75,000 bond, according to correction records, after a grand jury returned an indictment. His medical licenses were all suspended or turned in before his recent arrest.
“The Grand Jury has spoken, and our responsibility is to ensure the charges are carried out through the proper legal process,” Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson said in a statement.
A chaotic operative scene
When the Alabama man first arrived at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast in Miramar Beach with abdominal pain on Aug. 18, 2024, Dr. Shaknovsky recommended surgery.
The patient refused an operation at first and wanted to return home, Florida health officials said in a 2024 emergency application to suspend Dr. Shaknovsky’s license. Ultimately, the patient conceded under pressure from Dr. Shaknovsky, an osteopathic physician, to a laparoscopic splenectomy.
The procedure was scheduled late in the day on Aug. 21, 2024, after 5 p.m., raising concerns among the operating room staff who noted they only had a skeletal crew available. Staff also raised concerns about the doctor’s lack of experience and skills in the emergency department.
Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, 44, was arrested for allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of the spleen in a fatal surgery. Walton County Sheriff’s Office
Operating room staff “knew splenectomies were complicated procedures that could quickly deteriorate and were not regularly performed at Ascension,” documents read. Dr. Shaknovsky started the laparoscopic procedure but then elected to convert to an open procedure, without properly documenting the reasons, the emergency application said. During the operation, the patient started to hemorrhage, and his vitals dropped, so the operating staff called an emergency code.
A spokesperson for Ascension Sacred Heart said in a statement that “Dr. Shaknovsky was never a Sacred Heart Emerald Coast employee and has not practiced at any of our facilities since August 2024. We remain focused on upholding the standards our patients and community expect of us.”
Dr. Shaknovsky said in an interview with officials following the operation that he tried to control the patient’s bleeding. He claimed he blindly fired a stapling device into the abdomen, removing an organ he presumed to be the spleen, despite later admitting he was unable to properly identify it due to shock and chaos. He also alleged that the patient’s spleen was grossly enlarged and the liver was unusually positioned, contributing to his misidentification.
Accounts from operating room witnesses paint a chaotic scene and markedly different recollections. Upon opening the patient’s abdomen, a megacolon allegedly burst, obstructing visibility, the emergency application said. While staff attempted to clear the field, Dr. Shaknovsky is said to have identified a pulsing vessel, stapled it, and continued to dissect even as the abdomen was full of blood, failing to ask for essential tools like a clamp or cauterizer.
Dr. Shaknovsky identified a vessel that he intended to cut and noted that he could feel it pulsing under his finger. He told the staff member assisting him, “that’s scary.” He ultimately removed the liver, identifying it as the spleen, an organ distinct in size, color, and location.
Staff members said in the emergency application that they were reportedly shocked by this misidentification.
Despite resuscitation efforts, the patient was pronounced dead. Dr. Shaknovsky informed staff that the cause was a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm and insisted that the removed organ be labeled as a “spleen” for pathology. However, the medical examiner found no evidence of a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm.
Dr. Shaknovsky has denied wrongdoing, the emergency application said, asserting that the patients’ organs presented with abnormal anatomy or had “migrated” to an unusual location.
A checkered medical history
Applications to suspend or revoke Dr. Shaknovsky’s physician licenses document a checkered medical history. In an application for an emergency suspension of the Florida medical license of Dr. Shaknovsky, which was issued in 2020, Florida health officials detail another incident leading to patient harm. Just two months before the fatal surgery, Dr. Shaknovsky had operated on a 58-year-old man, removing a portion of his pancreas instead of the adrenal gland during an adrenalectomy, according to Florida’s Department of Health.
Dr. Shaknovsky documented removing the left adrenal gland and later claimed the adrenal gland had “migrated.” The patient suffered permanent harm from this error, department of health officials said. The Florida Department of Health suspended Dr. Shaknovsky’s license in September 2024, according to public records.
The wife of the patient who died in 2024 contacted the Alabama Board of Licenses to alert them to Dr. Shaknovsky’s alleged role in her husband’s death. The Alabama Board of Medical Examiners filed a complaint against Dr. Shaknovsky, temporarily suspending his license, which he has held since 2016 in Alabama. Dr. Shaknovsky “may constitute an immediate danger to his patients and the public,” the Alabama Medical Licensure Commission said in its order.
He surrendered his license on Nov. 7, 2024, according to Alabama’s medical license records. The Alabama application to suspend Dr. Shaknovsky’s license documented two prior operating mistakes in 2023 – one of which, the documents said, led to another fatality.
According to the Alabama State Board of Medical Examiners in July 2023, Dr. Shaknovsky was scheduled to perform an ileostomy, an operation that diverts the small intestine through the abdominal wall, but instead opted to perform a bowel resection on the patient, which resulted in a perforation. The patient was transferred to the intensive care unit, where she later died.
His New York State medical license, which he has held since 2015, was suspended in 2025.
Dr. Shaknovsky did not respond to a request for comment.
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