The Board found that the veteran's death was caused by her own willful misconduct, specifically voluntary heroin use during active duty. As a result, service connection for the cause of her death is denied.
The deciding factor: The veteran voluntarily ingested an excessive amount of heroin, leading to an acute overdose and subsequent death due to hypoxic brain injury. The Board determined that this was the proximate result of her own willful misconduct.
- Claimed conditions
- Hypoxic brain injury, Acute heroin overdose
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 1, 2006
- Citation
- 0633826
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,599 · Granted: 37% (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 0633826.
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The Veteran's death was caused by an acute heroin overdose, which she voluntarily ingested during active duty. The Board found that her death was the result of her own willful misconduct and denied service connection for the cause of her death.
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