A trail of errors: How a Florida surgeon removed a patient’s liver by mistake

Before Thomas Shaknovsky took out a man’s liver instead of his spleen, he was accused of other serious mistakes. Hospital workers said they wouldn’t let him operate on their families.

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — The patient was hemorrhaging, bright red blood pooling in his abdomen. His heart had stopped. As the medical team frantically did chest compressions on 70-year-old William Bryan, a surgeon raced to complete his operation through an incision in Bryan’s belly.

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