The Veteran's service-connected diabetes mellitus is found to have contributed substantially or materially to his death from end-stage pulmonary fibrosis.
The deciding factor: Diabetes mellitus resulted in general impairment of health, making the Veteran materially less capable of resisting the effects of the primary cause of death (end-stage pulmonary fibrosis).
- Claimed conditions
- diabetes mellitus, end-stage pulmonary fibrosis, ischemic heart disease
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 20%
- Decision date
- January 17, 2019
- Citation
- 19104441
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,037 · Granted: 21% (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 19104441.
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 the Veteran's claim for service connection for a heart condition, including ischemic heart disease. The evidence did not support a finding of a current disability related to service.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for diabetes mellitus, prostate cancer, visual impairment, hypertension, and erectile dysfunction due to lack of exposure to herbicide agents during service. The Veteran's claims were not granted.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claims for service connection on the merits are being remanded due to new evidence and development needs. The maximum disability rating for tinnitus has already been assigned.
- Granted
The Veteran's ischemic heart disease is granted as presumptively related to his service in the Gulf War, specifically aboard the USS Chanticleer and USS Mataco.
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