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Inset: Laura Belt (Tharp Funeral Home and Crematory). Background: The Iowa hospital where Laura Belt had the hernia repair surgery that led to her death (Google Maps).
In Iowa, a surgeon and two registered nurses are facing legal action from the family of a woman who passed away following what was supposed to be a routine hernia repair. The lawsuit claims that she was suffering from an infection and severe constipation, symptoms that were dismissed by medical staff as “normal,” leading to her tragic demise.
The victim, 46-year-old Laura Belt, died from complications related to a bowel perforation, which resulted in sepsis. These critical issues were allegedly overlooked by the medical team at Decatur County Hospital, as reported by the Iowa Capital Dispatch.
The family’s lawsuit, as detailed by the independent news outlet, charges Dr. Edwin Vincent Wehling of Leon, along with nurses Brandi Oesch and Tammy Roberts, with medical malpractice in connection to Belt’s death in May 2024.
Adding to the gravity of the situation, an April 2026 order from the Iowa Board of Medicine, reviewed by Law&Crime, accused Dr. Wehling of “professional incompetency” and conducting himself in ways deemed “harmful and detrimental to the public.”
According to board records, Dr. Wehling was serving as a surgeon at Decatur County Hospital during Belt’s surgery. Her family asserts that he was responsible for the operation while nurses Oesch and Roberts managed her postoperative care. The hospital itself is also named in the lawsuit, reflecting the family’s belief that multiple parties failed in their duty of care.
According to the complaint, Belt reported feeling “very uncomfortable” and “very anxious and tearful” after the surgery as she suffered from “constant drainage” of a “brown liquid” pouring out of her incision site. The liquid was deemed to be stool, which the nurses said was nothing to worry about, per the complaint, and Belt was discharged from the hospital a week after the hernia procedure.
Belt allegedly told hospital staff she had not had a bowel movement since the surgery.
“Consulted with Brandi, she states all is normal,” Roberts texted Belt on May 9, 2024, after she sent the nurse a photo of her incision site, which was still leaking a little over a week after she was discharged, according to the complaint.
“Brandi stated incision will drain like this for at least a month,” Roberts allegedly said.
Belt’s family alleges that she had a video call with Oesch the following day and showed her the wound, but she failed to advise Belt that she should seek emergency medical care, according to the Iowa Capital Dispatch.
On May 11, 2024, Belt was taken to Wayne County Hospital’s emergency department in an ambulance and her incision site allegedly showed signs of necrotic tissue along with the same “constant drainage” of stool. She was diagnosed as being in septic shock related to an infection stemming from her hernia repair, the complaint says.
Two days later, Oesch allegedly added a back-charted entry into Belt’s electronic medical record at Decatur County Hospital saying she had the video call with Belt and indicated that Belt was crying and experiencing problems with the incision site.
Oesch went on to write, “This nurse advised I would call Dr. Wehling and advise. This nurse notified Dr. Wehling and he requested (the antibiotic) Bactrim to be started,” according to the complaint. But the Bactrim prescription was allegedly never ordered.
Belt died on May 15, 2024. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports that Wehling, Oesch and Roberts have all denied any wrongdoing. Wehling has reportedly claimed that the cause of Belt’s injuries and complications “may have been a pre-existing medical condition and/or a subsequently occurring medical condition for which (he) is not responsible,” per the Dispatch.
A trial has been set for Aug. 23.