The veteran's death is not attributed to VA medical treatment, and the cause of his death was due to hypotension resulting from gastrointestinal bleed secondary to hepatic failure.
The deciding factor: VA medical records do not show any evidence linking the veteran’s hepatitis B or other conditions to VA treatment, nor does there appear to be a transfusion risk as blood testing for hepatitis B had been improved by then.
- Claimed conditions
- Hepatitis B, Gastrointestinal Bleed, Hepatic Encephalopathy, End Stage Cirrhosis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- August 8, 2002
- Citation
- 0209465
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 0209465.
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Partly granted
The Board denied an initial compensable rating for hypertension and service connection for hearing loss, but granted service connection for hepatitis B, diabetes mellitus, type II, and diabetic peripheral neuropathy in both lower extremities.,The Board denied service connection for erectile dysfunction and sleep apnea.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for diabetes mellitus type II, hepatitis B, a liver condition (hepatic steatosis and cirrhosis) secondary to service-connected hepatitis B, hypertension, prostate cancer, voiding dysfunction as secondary to service-connected prostate cancer, and erectile dysfunction as secondary to service-connected prostate cancer. The claim for anemia was remanded.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for an extraschedular total disability evaluation based on individual unemployability due to service-connected disabilities prior to April 30, 2020, as it needs additional medical evidence to differentiate between symptoms attributable to service-connected and non-service-connected conditions.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection and rating appeals to cure pre-decisional duty-to-assist errors.
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