A grand jury has indicted a Florida doctor on manslaughter charges for allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen during a 2024 surgery.
Defuniak Springs, Florida – A grand jury has indicted a Florida doctor on manslaughter charges for allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen during a 2024 surgery.
Dr. Thomas Schacknowski has been charged with second-degree murder, the First Judicial District Attorney announced Monday.
During the Aug. 21, 2024, surgery, which was scheduled to be a laparoscopic splenectomy, Schaknowski removed the victim’s liver instead of the spleen, prosecutors said. This resulted in “catastrophic blood loss and death of the patient on the operating table,” law enforcement officials wrote in a news 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.
Available court records did not list the name of Schaknowski’s attorney.
Florida suspended Schaknowski’s medical license after the surgery. Records show he voluntarily surrendered his medical license in Alabama after regulators moved to revoke his license.