Althouse: "Colleagues in the operating room 'had concerns that Dr. Shaknovsky did not have the skill level to safely perform this procedure'...."

April 15, 2026

"Colleagues in the operating room 'had concerns that Dr. Shaknovsky did not have the skill level to safely perform this procedure'...."

"After Dr. Shaknovsky removed the organ, 'The staff looked at the readily identifiable liver on the table and were shocked when Dr. Shaknovsky told them that it was a spleen,' the state documents said. 'One staff member felt sick to their stomach.'"

From "Surgeon Who Removed Wrong Organ From Patient Is Charged in His Death/Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky tried to persuade his colleagues in the operating room that the liver he removed from a 70-year-old patient was a spleen, according to Florida’s Health Department" (NYT).

60 comments:

Enigma said...: Colleagues in the USSC 'had concerns' that KBJ did not have the skill level to...

Colleagues in the Senate 'had concerns' that Joe Biden was too old to run...

Colleagues in the Party 'had concerns' that Newsom | Swalwell | Schiff | Pelosi | Schumer | etc. were not...; 4/15/26, 5:07 AM
MadTownGuy said...: Eek.; 4/15/26, 5:22 AM
Money Manger said...: Tim to add a new tag: “Splenetic”; 4/15/26, 5:25 AM
Breezy said...: This story seems fake.; 4/15/26, 5:31 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Holy Cow there’s a lot left out of that summary. If it’s a guest link I might actually read that one.; 4/15/26, 5:38 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Whatever happened to giving the patient a sharpie to write “take this one” on the body part at issue?; 4/15/26, 5:44 AM
Chris said...: None of the colleagues thought of correcting him when he was cutting in to the WRONG Area of the body, The opposite side of the body from the spleen? Fuck, a nurse could have pointed that out. That family, are going to be multimillionaires from the lawsuits.; 4/15/26, 5:46 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: A lot of Florida stories seem fake but an incredible amount of them are not. The medical system is the one thing we miss from California.; 4/15/26, 5:47 AM
Leland said...: Poor guy. Now how will he pay for his student loans?; 4/15/26, 5:49 AM
rehajm said...: You blue state snobs will want to blame it on the redneck Riviera but even Mass General kills a few patients every year. Maybe not with this kind of panache but still…; 4/15/26, 5:52 AM
Earnest Prole said...: And even more surprising: The doctor was dressed as Jesus.; 4/15/26, 6:00 AM
Fritz said...: "Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
Whatever happened to giving the patient a sharpie to write “take this one” on the body part at issue?"

When I had my retina reattached recently, the Dr. put a black X on my forehead over the correct eye as a reminder.; 4/15/26, 6:03 AM
Ann Althouse said...: " If it’s a guest link I might actually read that one."

I only get 10 gift links a month. Just google the names. This story is everywhere.; 4/15/26, 6:08 AM
Big Mike said...: Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Whatever happened to giving the patient a sharpie to write “take this one” on the body part at issue?

It’s pretty hard to write on your spleen.; 4/15/26, 6:13 AM
RMc said...: One staff member felt sick to their stomach.

Probably because the doctor had removed his spleen, too...; 4/15/26, 6:15 AM
tommyesq said...: When I had my hip replaced, the surgeon came in before I was put under and confirmed with me the procedure and the hip in question and then signed over where the incision would be. There seem to have been a bunch of procedural safeguards that were missed here.; 4/15/26, 6:19 AM
Sydney said...: He either never went to medical school or, or he’s insane.; 4/15/26, 6:40 AM
Dave Begley said...: Tom’s alma mater: Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine at Midwestern University.

He’s not an MD.; 4/15/26, 6:42 AM
R C Belaire said...: Mistakes were made.; 4/15/26, 6:43 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Dr: There.

Colleague: That's not the spleen. That's a liver.

Dr: No. It's a spleen.

Colleague: It's a liver. Look at the size of that thing.

Dr: Um...it's enlarged. I think that's one reason we're taking it out. It was crowding the liver.

Colleague: That's his liver, dude. I'll bet you.

Dr: How much?

Colleague: A hundred bucks.

Dr: I'm not gonna bet that much.

Colleague: Chicken.

Dr: I'm not chicken. I just don't enjoy gambling.

Colleague: Buk Buk Buk! Bukaw!

Dr: The point is, that's his spleen.

Colleague: Okay, Liverboy.; 4/15/26, 6:48 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Don't hijack this thread for another matter. There is a café for raising your own topics. It's an abuse of this forum, especially when you post multiple long comments. This is a case about criminal negligence by a surgeon, who removed the liver and allegedly called it a spleen.

Comments deleted.; 4/15/26, 6:53 AM
Iman said...: The leg bone’s connected to the neck bone…; 4/15/26, 6:55 AM
Ann Althouse said...: The comments I'm talking about are already gone, so what I said doesn't refer to anything that's still up.

I am not criticizing Bob Boyd!; 4/15/26, 6:56 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: Yikes. We all want to think our Surgeons, espicially the ones who operate on us, are Gods that make no errors. But they're just human. And some of them are really incompetent.

I was just reading about Dana Carvey who sued his surgeon in the 90s for "repairing" the wrong Heart artery. The damaged one was on the Left, the Doctor operated on the heathy right one.; 4/15/26, 6:59 AM
Bob Boyd said...: I am not criticizing Bob Boyd!

God forbid!; 4/15/26, 6:59 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: I assume the surgeon was drunk or under the influence of a drug. Someone like a pilot who crashes the plane while bombed out of his mind. Reckless negiligence.; 4/15/26, 7:00 AM
n.n said...: Conflation through semantic appeal is a common problem of choice. This time it was a liver.; 4/15/26, 7:03 AM
Enigma said...: The doctor graduated from "Midwestern University Medical School." This school is unranked by US News, but it seems to be a legit university.

https://www.healthgrades.com/physician/dr-thomas-shaknovsky-g9ftd

https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-medical-schools/midwestern-university-04146; 4/15/26, 7:08 AM
Joe Bar said...: There is a wide range of ability and intelligence in any profession. We are lucky if we never encounter those in the lower end of the spectrum.; 4/15/26, 7:09 AM
Bob Boyd said...: If you're not making mistakes, you're not trying hard enough.; 4/15/26, 7:09 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Never bring a knife to a gunfight...or to work if you're an osteopath.; 4/15/26, 7:17 AM
Howard said...: The victim looked as if he were 9-months pregnant with quintuplets. That had to make the dissection super difficult.; 4/15/26, 7:22 AM
Iman said...: In his defense, “Shaknovsky” is a Polish name.; 4/15/26, 7:23 AM
Temujin said...: Dr. Shaknovsky graduated from Midwestern University in 2009. Dr. Shaknovsky completed a residency at Palisades Medical Center|Hackensack University Medical Center.

You might want to keep these in your back pocket when checking on your surgeon.; 4/15/26, 7:27 AM
Justabill said...: I bet he’ll never make that mistake again.; 4/15/26, 7:46 AM
Jim said...: Just change the diagnosis on the paperwork to MAID and its all good.; 4/15/26, 7:47 AM
Humperdink said...: My primary care doctor called surgeons the knife boys. It was not a glowing remark.; 4/15/26, 7:56 AM
William said...: I've had a number of surgeons take a whack at me. They all seemed poised and self confident. Not all procedures went as hoped, but the confidence and poise of the surgeons have never wavered. Well, anyway, the results so far have not been catastrophic, and there aren't many octogenarians currently alive who wouldn't be alive but for medical and surgical intervention. .....This seems a remarkably bone headed mistake for someone who's not an orthopedic surgeon. There's more to this story. Perhaps the surgeon's confidence and poise overwhelmed the doubts of his associates.; 4/15/26, 8:05 AM
Eva Marie said...: “In his defense, “Shaknovsky” is a Polish name.”
Polish surnames end in an i not a y.
Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, or other East Slavic orgins.; 4/15/26, 8:12 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: I wonder if the term "DEI hire" makes an appearance in this article.; 4/15/26, 8:19 AM
Tom T. said...: "Shaknovsky was affectionately known as 'Dr. Nick' among his colleagues..."; 4/15/26, 8:22 AM
Iman said...: “Yes, Shaknovsky (and its variations like Schaknowski or Shakinovsky) is considered an Eastern European surname with strong ties to Jewish and Slavic/Polish communities. It likely originates from regions within modern-day Poland, Ukraine, or Belarus, potentially evolving from regional Slavic naming conventions or local occupational terms…”; 4/15/26, 8:24 AM
Kylos said...: Nassim Taleb might want to reconsider his advice that your surgeon should look like a butcher. In Shaknovsky’s case he quickly graduated from looking like one to being one.; 4/15/26, 8:26 AM
Enigma said...: I don't think DEI played a role here. He's a white guy, even if his name is East Slavic. I think he's a mediocre doctor from a mediocre university seeking to increase his income through the higher pay of surgical procedures.

The medical industry is split between (1) those with a compassionate calling, (2) those who continue in a family business generation after generation, and (3) get-rich-quick predatory slimeballs who want more $$$$$$$$$.

The way to get more dollars is through more appointments, prescriptions and procedures, whereby surgeons sometimes quickly jump into cutting and follow-ups. Also see the Vanderbilt University transgender "get on board for the profit" controversy.; 4/15/26, 8:28 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: [Wink] @ Big Mike.

And I also am not criticizing Bob. That was a funny althoustaposition though!; 4/15/26, 8:29 AM
Iman said...: and it was meant to be a joke, Eva Marie.; 4/15/26, 8:30 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Chris way back at 5:47 said what my wife said when I read the post out loud: "Nobody stopped him? Said anything?"; 4/15/26, 8:30 AM
Wince said...: "Save the liver. Don't throw it away. I hope I've made my point... Now, after we remove the giblets and save the 'you-know-what'..."; 4/15/26, 8:37 AM
FredSays said...: Nope. This didn’t happen unless they mixed up the patients. I hate it when that happens.; 4/15/26, 8:48 AM
Humperdink said...: When my daughter, age 4, was being wheeled to the OR for the first of many back surgeries, I stopped the cart and asked the nurse point blank what they were operating on. She responded correctly.; 4/15/26, 8:59 AM
Saint Croix said...: Don't hijack this thread for another matter.

I thought surgical mistakes was on point.; 4/15/26, 9:06 AM
Iman said...: He held the scalpel in his shaky right hand
He didn’t know an organ from a gland
And when he could, he gave that liver a tug
With the faintest of shrugs
You'll never know how bad it can feel
When you’ve earned the tag of a real shitheel
When he screwed teh pooch down at Palisades Med
Down at Palisades Med

h/t “Palisades Park” Freddie Cannon; 4/15/26, 9:08 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: This didn’t happen unless they mixed up the patients. I hate it when that happens.

I'm fascinated by the impossibility of this mobius loop scenario.; 4/15/26, 9:12 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Note: removing the entire liver will result in death 100% of the time, whereas one can survive without a spleen.; 4/15/26, 9:13 AM
Birches said...: I know some graduates of Midwestern in Glendale, AZ. They're very competent doctors and dentists. Not surgeons though. I would think the residency is at fault for allowing him to specialize in surgery. He's 44. A little too old to blame the general lack of standards in medicine for current graduates.; 4/15/26, 9:18 AM
Peachy said...: Is this guy an illegal?; 4/15/26, 9:33 AM
Humperdink said...: I have a relative who is a lead nurse in the OR. I asked her if there were good surgeons and bad ones. Oh yeah she said, easy to spot. The good ones know exactly what they want, when they want it, in the OR. The nurses are all relaxed. The bad ones are herky jerky, change their mind throughout the procedure. Nurses are tense. She said it works out well, just a more difficult process.; 4/15/26, 10:07 AM
jim said...: Florida Man!; 4/15/26, 10:10 AM
Aught Severn said...: You know what they call the surgeon who graduated at the bottom of the worst medical school in the country? "Doctor".; 4/15/26, 10:12 AM
Anthony said...: I'm almost not surprised no one said anything. Underlings generally tend to be hesitant in such situations and give the supposed expert the benefit of the doubt.

I once took a shuttle from a hotel to the airport and the driver obviously missed the exit, and ended up going around the entire airport on service roads and no one said a thing.

Until I piped up and said "Do you actually know where you're going?" and everybody else looked at me like I'd just farted.; 4/15/26, 10:15 AM