The Board denied the claim of service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, finding that the cause was not related to active service or any incident of service, including as due to a service-connected disability. The Board noted conflicting medical opinions and found insufficient evidence to support the Appellant's claims.
The deciding factor: The VA physicians provided comprehensive medical opinions concluding it was less likely than not that the Veteran’s service-connected PTSD, coronary artery disease, or diabetes mellitus caused or contributed to his death due to significant morbid obesity which significantly compromised his overall health and led to septic shock resulting in his death.
- Claimed conditions
- coronary artery disease, posttraumatic stress disorder, diabetes mellitus
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 28, 2019
- Citation
- 19106632
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,017 · Granted: 36% (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 19106632.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for an initial evaluation in excess of 10 percent for his service-connected coronary artery disease, finding that the evidence did not support a higher rating based on the severity of his condition.
- 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 claim for an increased rating for coronary artery disease is being remanded due to the inadequacy of a previous VA examination.
- 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.
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