Florida surgeon removes man's liver instead of his spleen by mistake

 

William Bryan 70 died on the operating table after a Florida surgeon mistakenly removed his liver instead of his spleen.

Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky performed a hand-assisted laparoscopic splenectomy on William Bryan, Zarzaur said, which had deadly consequences.

The surgeon proceeded with labelling the removed liver specimen as a 'spleen,' and it wasn’t until after the patient's death that the mistake was discovered.

Shaknovsky told his widow that her husband’s spleen was so diseased that it was four times bigger than normal and it had moved to the other side of his body,

According to the Cleveland Clinic, the  size if a human spleen is roughly the size of an avocado, and the typical human liver is roughly the size of a football.