The Veteran's unauthorized medical expenses for a tick bite and related treatment at Tuality Forest Grove Hospital on May 8, 2014 are granted as the condition was not service-connected but met the criteria for emergency treatment.
The deciding factor: The private hospitalization was deemed necessary due to an actual medical emergency of such nature that a prudent layperson would have reasonably expected delay in seeking immediate medical attention to be hazardous to life or health, and VA facilities were not feasibly available at the time.
- Claimed conditions
- tick bite, cellulitis, Lyme disease
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 15, 2018
- Citation
- 18111494
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 18111494.
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.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for the cause of death due to lack of evidence showing a link between any service-connected disability and the Veteran's death. The conditions listed on his death certificate were not related to his military service.
- Denied
The Board has determined that the Veteran does not have a current disability of cellulitis and there is no recent diagnosis prior to his claim. Therefore, service connection for cellulitis is denied.
- Denied
The Board has denied service connection for the claimed conditions, finding that they are not related to active duty service or any period of ACDUTRA/INACDUTRA service. The appellant's claims are based on secondary service connection due to a non-service-connected condition (Lyme disease), but the evidence does not support this claim.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to inadequate medical opinions and needs further development.
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