The Board found that the veteran's death was not caused by or substantially contributed to by a disability incurred in or aggravated by his service. The issue of entitlement to additional accrued benefits remains pending.
The deciding factor: The cause of death (pulmonary embolism) was not related to service-connected disabilities and no other condition was found to be directly related to the veteran's service.
- Claimed conditions
- Pulmonary embolism, Moderate obesity
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating
- Not verified here — check the original decision
- Decision date
- February 15, 2006
- Citation
- 0604407
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,467 · Granted: 18% (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 0604407.
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: Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to errors in duty to assist, specifically regarding toxic exposure exposures during service and their impact on the Veteran's cause of death.
- Whole decision: Denied
The Veteran's right lower extremity varicose veins, post-phlebitic syndrome, deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism are currently rated as 10 percent disabling. The Board found that the evidence does not support a higher rating due to lack of persistent edema or stasis pigmentation.
- Whole decision: Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection due to a pre-decisional duty to assist error regarding VA's obligation to obtain relevant records from the Social Security Administration.
- Whole decision: Denied
The Board denied the restoration of a separate 50 percent rating for sleep apnea due to clear and unmistakable error in the May 2008 rating decision.
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