Florida Lyft Driver Arrested and Charged with Manslaughter after Removing Wrong Organ as a Surgeon

A Florida man was arrested in April 2026 after being charged with manslaughter for the death of William Bryan, who died in 2024 after he operated on him as a surgeon, removing the wrong organ. In a bizarre twist, the Walton County Sheriff's Office arrested the former surgeon as he was working as a Lyft driver, after being informed that he had an active felony warrant.

Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky credit: Walton County Sheriff's Office

It wasn't "business as usual" for Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky on April 13, 2026, when Walton County Sheriff's Office pulled him over in his Mitsubishi SUV near a busy intersection in Miramar Beach, Florida.

Deputies Arrest Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky Working as a Lyft Driver

NBC News reported that Shaknovsky was placed under arrest at a busy intersection on April 13 for manslaughter. Deputies pulled him over for a felony warrant for the death of 70-year-old William Bryan in 2024. Bryan died after Dr. Shaknovsky removed his liver, when the surgery was supposed to remove his spleen. Bryan had catastrophic blood loss, which led to his death. Shaknovsky also faces a medical negligence lawsuit after a surgery on Dorothy Dorsett, where she died after Shaknovsky removed a mass from her body in 2023. 

NBC News reported that Shaknovsky's medical license was suspended about a month after Bryan died in 2024.

When confronted by police, Shaknovsky asked, "May I ask what this is about?" and the police informed him that it was for a manslaughter charge from when he was operating on patients as a surgeon.

When deputies opened the rear door of his Mitsubishi SUV, two women got out, who told police they were on vacation and Shaknovsky had picked them up from a hotel as their Lyft driver. The women were scared they were being robbed at gunpoint. One of the women was heard making a joke, "We're not using Lyft again...from now on, we're using Uber."

According to NBC News, Shaknovsky had been operating as a Lyft driver using his middle name "Jacob" for more than a year, with a five-star rating for over 3,000 rides.

A Lyft spokesperson said the following after the incident:

"As soon as we became aware of the driver's arrest, we removed them from the Lyft platform, and have been in contact with the ride requester to offer support." -Lyft spokesperson

 Walton County Sheriff's Office said that Shaknovsky and his attorney were given "ample notice to voluntarily turn himself in before he was pulled over." 

Spokeswoman Corey Dobridnia for the  Walton County Sheriff's Office said:

"Shaknovsky knew that he had a felony warrant, and he still chose to put people in his vehicle, and he ran that risk. He has a felony warrant and a felony stop requires guns drawn, all of that."