The Board denied the appellant's request to reopen her claim for service connection for the cause of the veteran's death, finding that the new evidence submitted did not relate to a previously unestablished fact and does not raise a reasonable possibility of substantiating the claim.
The deciding factor: The newly submitted evidence was not material as it provided no probative evidence regarding a previously unestablished fact (the presence of helminthiasis) or that, if present, it caused acute pancreatitis.
- Claimed conditions
- Acute pancreatitis
- How they argued it
- Reopened with new and material evidence
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 30, 2006
- Citation
- 0637113
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,776 · Granted: 24% (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 0637113.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The appeal seeking payment or reimbursement for the cost of unauthorized non-VA medical expenses incurred on February 11, 2022, under the FMP is remanded due to a need for additional evidence and an advisory medical opinion.
- Partly granted
The Board denied service connection for a neck disability and remanded claims for asthma, pulmonary embolism, thyroid cancer, acute pancreatitis, breast cancer, hypertension, left knee condition, right knee condition, and an acquired psychiatric disability.
- Denied
The Veteran's death was not caused by a service-connected disability.,The Veteran's diabetes mellitus is presumed to be related to his Vietnam service. However, the medical evidence does not support that it caused or contributed to his acute pancreatitis.,There is no evidence of ischemic heart disease in the Veteran's records, and he did not have any history of alcohol abuse. The examiner opined that there was no link between presumed exposure to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune (CLJ) and the Veteran's acute pancreatitis.,The medical opinions were inconclusive regarding whether the Veteran's surgeries caused or contributed to his acute pancreatitis.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient development and lack of a proper rationale for the medical opinion regarding the cause of death. The Veteran's surviving spouse is seeking service connection for the cause of his death, which includes multiple service-connected disabilities.
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