The Board denied the veteran's claim for special monthly pension for a surviving spouse based on the need for regular aid and attendance due to lack of recent medical records.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner did not have access to recent treatment records, which could provide more current information about the appellant's condition.
- Claimed conditions
- severe chronic bronchial asthma, right ankle calcaneal spurs, exogenous obesity
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 16, 2006
- Citation
- 0617620
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,645 · Granted: 19% (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 0617620.
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.
- Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's claim to reopen his service connection for right ankle calcaneal spurs, old trauma interosseous ligaments, and soft tissue swelling lateral malleolus.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case for additional development, including obtaining service department records and VA examinations to address whether the Veteran's conditions are related to his military service.
- Granted
The Veteran is granted special monthly pension based on the need for regular aid and attendance of another person, but not by reason of being housebound.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's obesity is being remanded for a VA examination to determine if it had its onset during service or is related to any in-service disease or injury. His concussion, head pain, and dizziness are also being examined to determine their relation to service.
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