The Board denied service connection for the cause of the veteran's death due to a lack of evidence linking his death to any disability incurred or aggravated in service.
The deciding factor: There is no competent medical opinion linking the cause of the veteran's death (cancer of the stomach with liver metastasis and cerebrovascular accidents) to service or any disability potentially related to service.
- Claimed conditions
- cancer of the stomach, cerebrovascular accidents
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating
- Not verified here — check the original decision
- Decision date
- February 7, 2003
- Citation
- 0302400
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,421 · Granted: 29% (granted or partly granted, in the indexed decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
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. Search VA.gov for the original decision (opens in a new tab) using citation 0302400.
What this means for you
A final Board denial may be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, generally within 120 days of the Board mailing date. A Supplemental Claim with new and relevant evidence is a separate option. Another Higher-Level Review of the Board decision is not available. Check your own notice: this historical decision does not set your deadline.
What you can do next
Use your own notice and decision stage. A remanded issue is not a final court-appealable denial. VA review guidance and CAVC filing instructions (U.S. federal; reviewed October 7, 2026).
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Whole decision: Dismissed
The Veteran's appeals for increased ratings for cerebrovascular accidents and service connection for lightheadness are dismissed. A 10 percent rating is granted for hypertension, effective from the date of the decision.
- Whole decision: Denied
The Veteran's death was caused by cancer of the stomach, which is not service-connected. The Board finds that none of his service-connected conditions were the cause or contributed to his death.
- Whole decision: Denied
The Board found that neither carcinomatosis of the abdomen nor cancer of the stomach had their onset during service, were not shown to be otherwise related to the Veteran's service or his service-connected disorders, and therefore did not cause or significantly contribute to the Veteran's death.
- Whole decision: Remanded (sent back)
The case is being remanded for additional development and notification to the appellant.
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