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An Iowa woman died after a routine hernia repair because she suffered from an infection and symptoms of deadly constipation, which hospital staff dismissed as “normal,” according to her family’s lawsuit against a surgeon and two registered nurses.
According to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, 46-year-old Laura Belt died in May 2024 of complications related to a bowel perforation that resulted in sepsis – issues that were allegedly ignored by Decatur County Hospital staff.
His family is suing Dr. Edwin Vincent Wehling and nurses Brandi Oesch and Tammy Roberts, also named as defendants in the lawsuit, for medical malpractice at Decatur County Hospital.
The Iowa Board of Medicine has also accused Wehling of “professional incompetence” and practicing in a manner that is “detrimental and harmful to the public,” the outlet reported. A board hearing on disciplinary charges is scheduled for September.
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Laura Belt, 46, died in May 2024 of complications related to bowel perforation, resulting in sepsis. (Tharp Funeral Home & Crematory)
According to the lawsuit, after coming to Decatur County Hospital for hernia repair surgery, Wehling operated on the belt while Oesch and Roberts handled her recovery, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reports.
After the surgery, Belt reportedly told staff that she felt “very uncomfortable” and “very anxious and tearful” because she was suffering from “constant drainage” of a “significant amount of fecal, brown fluid” from her incision site. According to the outlet, Belt also reportedly hasn’t had a bowel movement since the surgery.
Belt was released from the hospital a week after the hernia operation. According to the complaint, the incision site was still leaking more than a week after she was discharged.
The woman sent Roberts photos of the brown fluid.
According to the complaint, the brown fluid was determined to be stool, and nurses assured her there was nothing unusual about it.
Dr. Edwin Vincent Wehling and nurses Brandi Oesch and Tammy Roberts are being sued for medical malpractice. (Google Maps)
Roberts messaged Belt on May 9, 2024, “After consulting with Brandi she said everything is normal… Brandi said the incision will continue to bleed for at least a month.”
The day after the conversation with Roberts, Belt’s family says she had a video call with Osh and showed her brown fluid was still flowing from the wound, but she was reportedly not told to seek emergency medical care.
On May 11, 2024, Belt was taken by ambulance to the emergency department of Wayne County Hospital, where she was told that her incision site was showing signs of “persistent drainage” of stool as well as dead, necrotic tissue, and according to the lawsuit, she was diagnosed as being in septic shock in connection with an infection resulting from the hernia repair.
Two days later, Osh allegedly added a back-charted entry to Belt’s electronic medical record at Decatur County Hospital, confirming that she had made a video call with Belt and indicating that the woman was crying and that fluid had leaked from her wound onto the bathroom floor during the call.
According to the complaint, Oesch wrote, “This nurse advised that I call Dr. Wehling for advice. This nurse notified Dr. Wehling and he requested to start (the antibiotic) Bactrim.”
The lawsuit claims the Bactrim prescription was never ordered.
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Laura Belt died on May 15, 2024. (iStock)
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Belt died on May 15, 2024, and Wehling, Oesch and Roberts have all denied any wrongdoing.
According to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, Wehling claimed that the belt’s injuries and complications “may have been caused by a pre-existing medical condition and/or a subsequent medical condition for which (he) is not responsible.”
A trial has been scheduled for August 23.
