The Board has reopened the claim of service connection for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but finds that it is not related to service and denies the claim.
The deciding factor: There was no evidence showing a chronic pulmonary abnormality during service, and the veteran's statements associating his current condition with service are not competent medical evidence.
- Claimed conditions
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
- How they argued it
- Reopened with new and material evidence
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- September 28, 2006
- Citation
- 0630439
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 734 · Granted: 9% (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 0630439.
What this means for you
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Veteran's death was not caused or contributed to by service or a service-connected disability. The Board denied the claim for service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death as there was no evidence of herbicide exposure during service and no other link between the Veteran's death and his military service.
- Denied
The Veteran's death was not service connected due to lack of evidence linking his conditions to service, and there is no presumption of exposure to herbicide agents (Agent Orange). The Board found the evidence did not support a grant of service connection for any condition that caused or contributed to the Veteran's death.
- Granted
The Veteran was entitled to payment or reimbursement for medical expenses incurred due to an emergency at a non-VA facility because VA facilities were not feasibly available and he had a permanent and total disability rating.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that the cause of death (CHF, laryngeal cancer, and COPD) is not related to service. The case is being remanded for further development including obtaining in-patient records from Camp Carson, Colorado, verifying asbestos exposure during service, and obtaining a new VA medical opinion.
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