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Denied

The Board denied service connection for Barrett's esophagitis with heartburn and granted service connection for residuals of an appendectomy including a scar, but found that the veteran did not timely file a substantive appeal on these issues.

The deciding factor: The veteran failed to submit a timely substantive appeal within one year of being notified of the May 2002 rating action or within sixty days of the October 30, 2002 issuance of a statement of the case.

Claimed conditions
Low back disability, Barrett's esophagitis with heartburn
How they argued it
Direct service connection
Exposure basis
None
Rating assigned
None in this decision
Decision date
May 26, 2006
Citation
0615550

Veterans Law Judge

THOMAS J. DANNAHER

Decisions by this judge: 1,377 · Granted: 17% (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 0615550.

What this means for you

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