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).
The family of a woman who passed away following a routine hernia surgery in Iowa is pursuing legal action against an Iowa surgeon and two registered nurses. They claim negligence in handling what turned out to be an infection and life-threatening constipation, symptoms they allege were dismissed as “normal.”
According to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, 46-year-old Laura Belt died from complications related to a bowel perforation that resulted in sepsis. The lawsuit claims these critical signs were overlooked by the staff at Decatur County Hospital.
The family’s lawsuit, reported by the independent news outlet, targets Dr. Edwin Vincent Wehling from Leon, along with nurses Brandi Oesch and Tammy Roberts, accusing them of medical malpractice tied to Belt’s death in May 2024.
Documents from April 2026, as seen by Law&Crime, reveal that the Iowa Board of Medicine has brought charges against Wehling for “professional incompetency” and conducting his practice in a manner deemed “harmful and detrimental to the public.”
Records indicate that Wehling was employed as a surgeon at Decatur County Hospital during Belt’s hernia operation. The lawsuit asserts that Wehling performed the surgery while Oesch and Roberts were responsible for her postoperative care.
The complaint details that following the surgery, Belt experienced significant discomfort and anxiety, coupled with “constant drainage” of a “brown liquid” from her incision, which was identified as stool. According to the lawsuit, the nursing staff dismissed these symptoms as non-threatening, and Belt was released from the hospital a week after her 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.
