The Veteran's cause of death was not due to a service-connected disability, and hepatitis C was not incurred in or aggravated by service. The Board denied both the claim for service connection for the cause of death and the claim for service connection for hepatitis C for accrued benefits purposes.
The deciding factor: There is no medical evidence linking the Veteran's service to his cause of death or to his hepatitis C, and the appellant's speculative opinions were not considered probative enough to establish a link between service and these conditions.
- Claimed conditions
- hepatitis C, cirrhosis, renal failure, cardiac arrest, anoxic encephalopathy
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 18, 2019
- Citation
- 19104727
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,480 · Granted: 26% (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 19104727.
What this means for you
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
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- Denied
The Board has determined that the Veteran's death was not caused by or substantially contributed to by any service-connected disability, and thus denied the claim for service connection for cause of death.
- 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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has dismissed the appeal for accrued benefits and has remanded the issue of service connection for cause of death, as there was a duty to assist error related to obtaining a medical nexus opinion regarding in-service herbicide agent exposure.
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