Health and Medicine

How Did a Surgeon Mistake a Man’s Liver for His Spleen?

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December 9, 2024
A few months ago, a brief but horrific news item from Florida caught my eye and stayed with me for days. A man named Bill Bryan needed a fairly routine surgery — the removal of his spleen — but his surgeon, Thomas Shaknovsky, removed his liver instead, instantly killing him. Immediately, I wanted to know, How exactly could this happen? And on a broader level, is a mistake like this something that everyday consumers of health care (in other words, all of us) need to worry about? In this engrossing investigation, science journalist Rachel Nuwer uncovers what happened to Bryan that day and the disturbing culture of silence that almost kept Shaknovsky’s fatal error hidden for good. The story also delivers a fascinating exploration of “never events,” a little known term for dire medical outcomes that should never happen — but actually seem to happen quite regularly.
—Julia Edelstein, features editor, New York 
HEALTH

How Did a Surgeon in Florida Mistake a Man’s Liver for his Spleen? Grave errors like this, called never events, aren’t as rare as they might seem.
By Rachel Nuwer
Photo-Illustration: Boy_Anupong/Getty Images
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