After a while, the staff was unable to resuscitate Byran, and he was pronounced dead. Shaknovsky extracted an organ he called Byran’s spleen and put it on a table. Staff reportedly looked at the readily identifiable liver in shock. One reported feeling sick to their stomach.

Misidentified organs

The liver Shaknovsky removed was over 2,100 grams, measuring about 23 by 19 by 11 centimeters. An enlarged spleen is at most 500 grams and only up to 20 cm long, the health department noted. Moreover, livers and spleens are anatomically distinct and have different colors and consistencies. The liver is on the right side of the abdomen, while the spleen is on the left, the side Byran had said was painful.

Shaknovsky insisted that the liver be labeled as a spleen and returned to the OR three times that evening to try to convince staff that it was a spleen. A pathology report of the so-called spleen described it as “a grossly identifiable 2,106 g liver.”

An autopsy revealed that Byran’s spleen was intact, his liver was missing, and his inferior vena cava was severed. The inferior vena cava is the largest vein in the body and brings deoxygenated blood from the lower body back to the heart through the liver.

Amid investigating the ghastly circumstances of Byran’s death, investigators also noted that it wasn’t the first time that Shaknovsky had removed the wrong organ. In 2023, he wrongly removed a portion of a patient’s pancreas when he intended to remove the adrenal gland. He reported afterward that the adrenal gland had “migrated.”

The lawsuit Bryan’s widow filed is still pending. She told NBC News: “He would want his death to prevent someone else from being hurt, which is what I think the criminal charges being brought will do. If we had to suffer through this and he had to die, then at least no one else will be hurt by this man now.”