The Veteran's cause of death was respiratory failure, septicemia with an underlying subdiaphragmatic abscess. The Board found no service connection for any disability at the time of his death and thus denied both the claim for service connection for the cause of death and the DIC at the A&A rate.
The deciding factor: The Veteran had not established service connection for any disability during his lifetime, which could be considered to have contributed to his death. The Board found no evidence linking the causes of death (respiratory failure, septicemia with underlying subdiaphragmatic abscess) to his service.
- Claimed conditions
- respiratory failure, septicemia, subdiaphragmatic abscess
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 4, 2013
- Citation
- 1311264
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 1311264.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Veteran's causes of death were not found to be service-connected, as there was no credible evidence linking the conditions to his military service.
- Denied
The Board denied DIC and survivors' pension benefits due to the lack of evidence linking septicemia to service, and because the Appellant's income exceeded the maximum annual pension rate.
- Granted
The Veteran's cause of death, including hypertension and diabetes mellitus type II, are presumed to be related to his service in the Republic of Vietnam. The Board has granted service connection for these conditions.
- Granted
The Veteran's cause of death was respiratory failure caused by hepatic failure, hepatocellular cancer, and chronic hepatitis C infection.,Service connection for the cause of death is granted as his alcohol and substance abuse were secondary to his service-connected PTSD.
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