Death On The Operating Table: Surgeon Charged After Removing the Wrong Organ

An Alabama doctor has been charged with manslaughter after his patient died during surgery. Prosecutors say the doctor made an unfathomable mistake:  he removed the wrong organ. The patient was supposed to have his spleen removed, but instead, the doctor took out his liver. But, it’s not the first time the doctor has made such a mistake, and it’s not the first time one of his patients died from surgery.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, that folks. It is Thursday, April sixteenth, and a
surgeon has been charged with manslaughter because his patient died
on the operating table. The patient died after the doctor
removed the wrong organ. And with that, welcome to this
episode of Amy and TJ. Yes, this doctor is facing

(00:25):
manslaughter charges at this point. We give you an update
on the story that's been making some headlines. Again, Welcome
to Amy and TJ. Robes is sitting this one out.
We'll she'll be back with us here in a little bit.
But wanted to give you this update because it is
a significant one and it's something that a lot of
people will kind of relate to, haven't We all at
some point had a surgery. Always get nervous when you

(00:45):
have surgery, but you don't think something like this is
going to happen. A doctor can't identify the right organ. Well,
to get you caught up. He's been making some headlines
this week because the doctor was finally officially charged. Us
say finally because the incident happened last year last summer.
In particular, this happened in Florida, where a doctor by

(01:06):
the name of Thomas Shaikovsky was operating on a patient
by the name of Bill Bryant, seventy years old. Bill
Bryan was actually from Alabama. Bill Bryan was in Florida
in the destined area for vacation with his wife, and
while they were there, he started complaining of some severe
stomach pain. So they started going into the doctor to
get some help. The doctor kept recommending that, yes, you

(01:28):
need to go into surgery, we need to remove your spleen. Well,
Bill Bryan is from Alabama. He doesn't know this doctor,
he doesn't know these people, so he wants to go
back to Alabama when the trip is over, get the
surgery done there. The doctor, according to Bill Bryan's wife,
and according to a lawsuit that has been filed, we'll
get into that, Bill Bryan insisted on going home, but

(01:51):
the doctor, Thomas Shaikowsky, pressured them repeatedly, stayed on them.
You have to get it done here. It's going to
be dangerous if you go. So after days of this
back and forth, Bill Brian eventually agrees to do this surgery,
goes in for surgery. He does not come out of surgery,
died on the operating table from what they say was

(02:12):
catastrophic blood loss. This happened at a hospital ascension. Sacred
Heart is the name of it. So the doctor Thomas Schakowski.
This has been going on, this investigation since last summer
when the operation took place and when Bill Brian died.
They have now finally got to the point that this
week they were ready to charge him with second degree manslaughter.

(02:32):
He's also facing a lawsuit by the widow of Bill Brian,
and they allege some pretty unbelievable stuff frankly, from a doctor,
from the nurses from the hospital, and they are alleging
a cover up. So the incident, let's go in particular.
So they go and they say for this surgery that

(02:53):
mister Brian needs to have his spleen removed now after
the surgery, So what happens in the surgery is that
the doctor, the nurses, they all kind of describe a
chaotic scene in which Bill Bryant actually goes into cardiac
arrest at one point during the surgery, and the doctor continues.
The surgeon continues on with what he's doing, which is

(03:15):
trying to remove a spleen. So you can only imagine
the scene the chaos that is now described. Blood apparently
is going everywhere and at some point the nurses, according
to reports, according to the lawsuit, we're trying to tell
him you didn't remove the spleen, you remove the wrong thing.
He ended up removing the liver spleen. Liver. Man comes

(03:41):
in to have a spleen removed, a liver gets taken out,
and it leads, according to authorities, to this man's death.
Now still after according to authorities, after the surgery, after
Bill Bryan died, after the liver was removed again the
wrong organ, the doctor, doctor Schakowski, reportedly still insisted, still

(04:04):
insisted that he had done the right thing, that he
had done the right surgery, that he had removed the
right organ. It wasn't until the pathologist was brought in
started checking out and doing some tests on the tissue
that was removed and said, nah, this is liver tissue.
And that's when the medical examiner got involved, was brought in,
took a look at the body Bill Brian's body and said, oh, yeah,

(04:26):
the spleen is right there, still intact, still where it's
supposed to be. You didn't remove it. And that's when
they officially realized that this had been removed, that the
liver instead of the spleen had been removed. Obviously, nobody
could was trying to figure out what is going on,
How could something like this happen? But the widow of
Bill Brian did file a lawsuit, and it's in this

(04:48):
lawsuit that we're getting more information about the allegations and
in particular a cover up. Not only was a mistake made,
according to the lawsuit filed by Bill Brian's widow, the hospital, nurses,
the doctors were all complicit and all involved in trying

(05:08):
to cover up what has happened. So the widow has
sued everybody, yes doctor Shikowski of course, but also nurses involved.
Insuing the hospital. They said they went as far in
the cover up, and it wasn't just about the stories
they were telling to the family members or other people
at the hospital. They said they actually falsified records in

(05:30):
an attempt to cover up what had taken place and
told the wife afterwards, according to her, told her that
the spleen was actually four times larger than it should
have been and that it had actually moved to a
different side of his body. They were trying to find
a way. According to Bill Brian's widow and her attorney,

(05:53):
they were trying to find a way to explain away
what had happened. So it was four times larger and
moved to another side of his body. I said, that
was just a part of the setup and the cover
up and trying to tell a different story and try, frankly,
to not get sued. But here's a thing, this doctor
had been sued before. This was not the first was

(06:17):
it even the second time that doctor Thomas Schakowsky has
run into trouble, and including legal trouble and also trouble
having to do with patients having wrong things removed, and
also having to do with patients dying on his operating table.
I know, as wild as the story sounds, how could

(06:40):
this happen, that the wrong organ could be removed? Well,
it seems like something that would be so incredibly rare,
But it's not the first time this doctor has made
a mistake like this. Stay here we will explain why
some say this doctor should have been nowhere near h spital.

(07:09):
We continue here on an amulst Amy and TJ following
up on the doctor that was arrested this week. The
surgeon arrested being charged with manslaughter after his patient died
during what was supposed to be a laparoscopic splenectomy, that is,
removing the spleen. What ended up being removed was the liver. Catastrophic,

(07:32):
as they put a catastrophic blood loss resulted and the
patient by the name of Bill Bryant, seventy year old
man from Alabama, did die. He's not the only patient
who was in doctor Schaikowsky's care that died. Another patient
in twenty twenty three. So we go back. It was
two years before this most recent incident, in another incident,

(07:53):
in another surgery, a procedure was done in which they
say the doctor was accused of removing part of the
patient's in testine. He wasn't supposed to do this. A
whole developed. This patient eventually ended up in ICU, and
this patient eventually died. Yes, another patient of this particular

(08:21):
doctor died on the operating table based on what they
say was another issue of this doctor doing something wrong.
But that's not it. In the same year twenty twenty three,
when he had a patient die in that same year,
he had another issue months prior. And get this, that

(08:41):
issue and that operating room was another wrong site surgery.
That's what they call it. What that means is he
was supposed to be operating on one thing and he
was operating on something else. This had to do with
the pancreas. That patient did not die, but that patient
did sue and they settled that. So a lot of

(09:03):
folks are telling you, how is this guy able to
make these mistakes, bounce around from hospitals even different states
at times, and continue to work. Well, we don't know,
and that's why a lawsuit has been filed and you
can only imagine what they are going after. You can
only imagine what the defense is going to be when

(09:23):
you talk about a hospital and a wrongful death. But
that lawsuit is going through the process now. So you
have a civil arm of this case and you now
have a criminal arm to this case. Should let you
know his license has been now suspended, hasn't been taken away.
A lot of people tell you should have been taken
away a long time ago. But he is not practicing anymore.

(09:46):
But Bill Bryan is dead at the age of seventy
because he didn't because his surgeon didn't know the difference
between the spleen and the liver. I'm not going to
suggest that I would understand the anatomy if it's not
the childhood game operation. I don't have a good handle

(10:09):
on what the human body and what parts are where
and all of this. But the dude's a surgeon, so
it seems like almost it seems almost impossible that you
could remove the wrong thing, that you could remove a
different organ. But the widow is looking for those answers
right now. Police are looking for those answers, and they
might also be looking at more of this doctor's background.

(10:33):
And yes, whatever punishment may or may not come his way,
there are plenty who will tell you there is punishment
that need to come to somebody who allowed this guy
to keep working in their hospitals and in particular, in
their operating rooms. I just wanted to give you this
update on a story that's been making a hell of
a lot of headlines and a lot of people trying
to explain how this happened and why this happened. But yeah,

(10:56):
how is incredible? How is it possible that a surgeon,
somebody with a degree could go into somebody's body and
take the wrong thing out. I always appreciate you spending
some time here with us. Remember top right corner of
your Apple podcast app where you see our show page
a little button that says follow click that you can subscribe.
Make sure you always get our updates, and as we say,

(11:17):
these days, there are a plenty. I always appreciate your
spending some time with us, though, I'm TJ. Holmes on
behalf of my dear Amy Robot Talks soon