In a shocking incident that reopened the debate about the safety of medical procedures, a surgeon in the US state of Florida was charged with manslaughter after he made a catastrophic error during a routine surgery. Instead of removing the spleen as planned, the doctor removed the patient’s liver, which led to severe bleeding that killed him on the operating table.
A grand jury in the state charged Dr. Thomas Schaknowski (44 years old) with manslaughter, and the state of Florida suspended his medical license after the surgery, while he faces a sentence of up to 15 years in prison if convicted, amid widespread scrutiny from public opinion and health authorities.
The details of the case go back to 2024, when a seventy-year-old man underwent laparoscopic surgery after suffering from abdominal pain and suspected spleen problem.
However, the course of the operation went awry, as the surgeon made a mistake in identifying the target organ and removed the liver, which is a vital and larger organ and is located in a completely different location than the spleen. This error caused rapid and massive blood loss that the medical team was unable to control, and the operation ended in the patient’s death.
The doctor was put on trial after investigations that continued for a period, as the prosecution considered that what happened during the operation constituted a serious error that led to the patient’s death.
Investigations revealed more serious aspects of the incident, as they indicated that the surgeon did not stop when clear indications of error appeared, but rather continued the surgical procedure, and later noted that the removed organ was the spleen.
It was reported that some members of the medical staff expressed doubts during the operation, but the doctor insisted on his position, which raised questions about the work environment inside the operating room and decision-making mechanisms in critical moments.
On the legal level, the incident was not classified as an ordinary medical error, but rather was considered an unintentional murder, in a development that reflects the seriousness of professional negligence when it exceeds the limits of acceptable error.