The Board denied the appellant's claim of entitlement to service connection for the cause of her husband's death, finding no competent medical evidence linking any of the veteran's diagnoses (including his service-connected disabilities) to his military service.
The deciding factor: The VA doctor concluded that there was no evidence showing that any of the veteran's active disease entities could be attributed to the presence of fragments of shrapnel in his head and neck region or, as such, to his in-service shrapnel wounds.
- Claimed conditions
- Pneumonia, Metastatic brain tumor, Pancreatic carcinoma
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 4, 2002
- Citation
- 0213635
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 0213635.
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.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, finding that none of the listed causes were related to his military service and no service-connected disability contributed to his death.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim of service connection for cause of death, finding that his service-connected conditions did not contribute to his death. The evidence showed well-controlled heart symptoms prior to death and no causal relationship between anxiety and cardiopulmonary disease or renal failure.
- Denied
The Veteran's death was not caused by any service-connected disability, and the criteria for DIC under 38 U.S.C. § 1318 were not met.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, determining that his fatal lung cancer was related to his military service.
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