Dying: Starting over

This plant had some leaf damage that I thought was caused by water droplets, but the problem seems to be more serious than that. I went to trim off some yellowing leaves at the base, and the entire plant came up out of the soil. It seems to have had some kind of problem with root rot. Since most of the top of the plant still looked healthy, I trimmed leaves for new cuttings. In the process, I discovered minor scarring on the undersides of the petioles. Insects?

I’m just going to try again and hope the problem doesn’t resurface.