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Granted

The Veteran's death was caused by metastatic rectosigmoid cancer, and it is more likely than not that the proximate cause of the Veteran's death was due to an error in judgment on the part of VA in failing to diagnose the Veteran's rectal cancer.

The deciding factor: It can be determined with reasonable medical certainty that the patient's death was caused by metastatic rectal/rectosigmoid cancer and that the death was significantly hastened by the VA's failure to timely diagnose his rectal cancer.

Claimed conditions
metastatic rectosigmoid cancer
How they argued it
Direct service connection
Exposure basis
None
Rating assigned
None in this decision
Decision date
February 17, 2009
Citation
0905548

Veterans Law Judge

MICHAEL LANE

Decisions by this judge: 2,272 · Granted: 31% (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 0905548.

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.

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