The veteran received medical treatment for severe health issues related to his service-connected schizophrenia at a private hospital. The VA found that the Boise VA Medical Center was not feasibly available and an attempt to use it beforehand would not have been reasonable, sound, wise, or practical. Therefore, payment is granted for unauthorized medical services provided.
The deciding factor: The veteran's condition required complex medical care which could only be provided at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, making the VA facilities infeasible and impractical.
- Claimed conditions
- profound hyperthermia, obtundation with tonic muscle activity, abnormal right cerebral peduncular lesion, aspiration pneumonitis of the right upper lobe, respiratory failure, renal insufficiency, rhabdomyolysis, mild transaminitis, mild coagulopathy
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- September 11, 2006
- Citation
- 0628637
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,677 · Granted: 26% (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 0628637.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Veteran's causes of death were not found to be service-connected, as there was no credible evidence linking the conditions to his military service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims of service connection for radiculopathy, left and right lower extremities as secondary to lumbosacral strain due to a lack of an adequate medical opinion prior to the March 2025 rating decision. The Veteran is advised to cooperate with VA in obtaining relevant evidence.
- Denied
The Veteran's increased evaluation for rhabdomyolysis is denied, and his service connection claims for other conditions are also denied.
- Granted
The Board has granted initial disability ratings of 10 percent for rhabdomyolysis of the bilateral lower legs, muscle group XII, effective April 19, 2024. The decision finds that the Veteran's symptoms during the appeal period more nearly approximate moderate muscle disabilities.
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