The Board denied the claim of service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death due to lack of new and material evidence, as the additional evidence provided was cumulative or duplicative.
The deciding factor: The newly submitted evidence did not provide any information that could reasonably substantiate the claim were it to be reopened.
- Claimed conditions
- cause of death (bi-occipital hemorrhage), head and neck cancer, pulmonary nodule, end-stage renal disease
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 16, 2019
- Citation
- 19104058
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for service connection for cause of death to obtain a new medical opinion due to errors in previous examinations.
- Partly granted
The Board granted an earlier effective date of March 7, 2019, for the grant of service connection for pulmonary nodule and chronic cough but denied a compensable disability rating for the same condition. The claim for service connection for lesions on lungs was remanded.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for a medical opinion regarding the Veteran's cause of death, considering potential in-service toxic exposure.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for a compensable rating for chronic lymphocytic leukemia with normocytic anemia, a 10 percent rating under 38 C.F.R. § 3.324 for multiple noncompensable service-connected disabilities, and initial ratings for left knee strain and pulmonary nodule.
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