The Board denied the claim for service connection for the cause of the veteran's death, finding that there was no evidence linking his cancer to military service or exposure to herbicides.
The deciding factor: Service connection could not be established due to lack of in-service diagnosis and no medical opinion linking current condition to service or herbicide exposure.
- Claimed conditions
- respiratory failure, fungemia/sepsis, neutropenia, Stage IV head and neck cancer
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 24, 2006
- Citation
- 0605501
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for a medical opinion on whether the Veteran's acute hypoxemia, respiratory failure, and pneumonia were related to service or toxic exposure under the PACT Act.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the case to obtain additional evidence, including service treatment records and private medical records, and to obtain an addendum medical opinion regarding the Veteran's causes of death.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the issue of entitlement to service connection for the Veteran's cause of death, for purposes of entitlement to dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC), due to pre-decisional duty to assist errors.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the appeal to correct pre-decisional duty to assist errors and to satisfy any statutory or regulatory duty that could aid in substantiating the claim, specifically related to asbestos exposure under the PACT Act.
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