The Board found that the veteran's service-connected post-traumatic arthritis of the knees did not cause or contribute to his death, and therefore denied service connection for the cause of death.
The deciding factor: The evidence does not support a causal relationship between the veteran's service-connected post-traumatic arthritis of the knees and his death from aortic endocarditis, amyloidosis, chronic renal failure, and diabetes mellitus.
- Claimed conditions
- Amyloidosis, Aortic Endocarditis, Chronic Renal Failure
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 4, 2005
- Citation
- 0502810
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 464 · Granted: 21% (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 0502810.
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.
- Denied
The Veteran's death was not caused or contributed to by service or a service-connected disability. The Board denied the claim for service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death as there was no evidence of herbicide exposure during service and no other link between the Veteran's death and his military service.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for the cause of his death, finding that there was no evidence of radiation exposure or participation in a radiation-risk activity during his active service. The Board also found that the Veteran's conditions did not have a causal connection to his military service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has denied the claim for SMC based on aid and attendance or housebound status due to the Veteran's service-connected PTSD. The case is being remanded to obtain a VA opinion addressing whether the Veteran needed regular aid and attendance or was housebound as a result of his PTSD, and if so, whether it was related to his service-connected PTSD.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's death was caused by his underlying conditions of multiple myeloma and amyloidosis, which are at least in equipoise with exposure to benzene during service. The claim for service connection for cause of death is granted.
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