The veteran's claim for compensation under 38 U.S.C.A. § 1151 was denied as there is no evidence of additional disability caused by VA treatment, and the preponderance of the evidence does not support a finding that such disability was due to negligence or other fault on the part of VA.
The deciding factor: The medical evidence did not attribute the veteran's complaints of abdominal pain to any of the factors related to his previous gallbladder surgery. The degenerative joint disease in his lumbar spine and atherosclerosis were not attributed to the retained metallic clips from the previous surgery or other consequences of the surgeries.
- Claimed conditions
- degenerative joint disease of the lumbar spine, atherosclerosis, hiatal hernia, liver disease
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 10, 2003
- Citation
- 0302459
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 685 · Granted: 36% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted 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. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 0302459.
What this means for you
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What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to incomplete development of records and will provide a supplemental statement of the case if necessary.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's lumbar spine arthritis is aggravated by his service-connected bilateral knee disabilities, and thus grants service connection for this condition.
- Granted
The Veteran's low back disability was rated at 40% prior to September 28, 2018. From that date, the rating was increased to 50%. The earlier effective date for TDIU is denied.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's service connection claims for coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis, peripheral vascular disease, varicose veins, and irritable bowel syndrome are remanded due to the need for additional medical opinions regarding secondary service connection.
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