The Board finds that the veteran's death was not caused by or substantially or materially contributed to by a disability incurred in or aggravated by his active duty service, including his service-connected PTSD.
The deciding factor: The evidence does not establish a direct causal link between the veteran's alcoholism and his service-connected PTSD. The medical opinions do not support an etiological relationship between the veteran's alcoholism and his death.
- Claimed conditions
- Acute Renal Failure, Alcoholic Cirrhosis, Respiratory Failure
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- September 7, 2006
- Citation
- 0627912
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,500 · 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 0627912.
What this means for you
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the case to obtain a medical opinion addressing whether the Veteran's service-connected PTSD caused or aggravated his cardiovascular diseases, which were listed as contributing causes of death.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for his cause of death, finding insufficient evidence to establish full-body exposure to mustard gas during service and no medical link between the Veteran's causes of death and mustard gas exposure.
- Denied
The Board denied dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC) based on service connection for the cause of the Veteran’s death due to multiple myeloma, coronary artery disease, acute myocardial infarction, and respiratory failure. The Board found that there was no evidence linking these conditions to the Veteran's military service.
- Denied
The Veteran's death was not caused by any service-connected disability, and the VA treatment from May 30 to June 6, 2013 did not cause his additional disabilities. The Board found no reasonable possibility that obtaining a medical opinion would aid in substantiating the claim.
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