The Board found no evidence to support the appellant's claim for service connection for the cause of her husband's death, as there was no established service-connected disability and no evidence linking his death to military service or a pre-existing condition. The claims for non-service-connected Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) death pension benefits and accrued benefits were also denied due to lack of supporting medical records.
The deciding factor: The appellant failed to provide sufficient evidence to establish that the veteran's cause of death was related to his military service, as there is no record of any respiratory disease within one year of his service or in the years immediately after his active service. The Board concluded that the preponderance of the evidence did not support the claim for service connection.
- Claimed conditions
- cardiorespiratory arrest, pneumonia
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 29, 2006
- Citation
- 0640170
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 499 · Granted: 18% (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 0640170.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for pneumonia, diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), and asthma as causes of death. The evidence did not support finding that these conditions were related to his service-connected disabilities.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's death was caused by cardiorespiratory arrest and metastatic esophageal cancer. The appellant is recognized as the surviving spouse, but service connection for cause of death remains pending due to insufficient information on in-service exposure to herbicide agents.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims of service connection for hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, and pneumonia due to insufficient evidence in the record. The Veteran's current diagnoses are not supported by the medical records provided.
- Denied
The Board denied the claim for service connection for cause of death, finding that there was no evidence linking the Veteran's cardiorespiratory arrest to his military service or a service-connected disability.
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