The Veteran's death was not caused by a service-connected disability, and his service did not meet the threshold criteria for nonservice-connected pension benefits. The cause of death (septic shock, third degree AV block, and upper gastrointestinal bleed) is not related to any service-connected condition.
The deciding factor: There is no evidence linking the Veteran's service-connected knee disability to his fatal conditions or showing that it hastened his death.
- Claimed conditions
- septic shock, third degree atrioventricular (AV) block, upper gastrointestinal (UGI) bleed, bilateral chondromalacia patellae
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 29, 2019
- Citation
- 19106594
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 issue of entitlement to service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death due to a pre-decisional duty-to-assist error.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings and service connection, as there was no evidence of a current disability or that her symptoms were related to her military service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remanded the case to obtain a new medical opinion on whether the veteran's service-connected anxiety disorder aggravated his immune suppression or caused an inflammatory condition that led to his death.
- Denied
The Veteran's cause of death was not service-connected, as the evidence does not support a finding that his cardiorespiratory arrest, septic shock, renal failure and cirrhosis were related to his military service or specifically to Agent Orange exposure.
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