The Veteran's cause of death was listed as aspiration pneumonia, which is not service-connected.,The Appellant did not have qualifying service to be eligible for nonservice-connected death pension.
The deciding factor: There is no evidence linking the Veteran’s cause of death to his service-connected condition or any other service-related exposure.
- Claimed conditions
- aspiration pneumonia
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 1, 2019
- Citation
- 19123758
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 has decided to remand the case due to the need for additional development regarding whether the Veteran was exposed to tactical herbicide agents at Don Muang RTAFB during his period of service as a fire prevention specialist, which could potentially affect his claim for cause of death.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claim for determining if the Veteran's causes of death are related to his military service and if his service-connected disabilities contributed to his death.
- Denied
The Board denied the claim of service connection for cause of death, finding that there was no evidence linking the Veteran's conditions to his service-connected disabilities or to herbicide exposure. The primary causes of death were not related to service.
- Denied
The Veteran's cause of death was listed as aspiration pneumonia and cerebral vascular accident with contributory causes listed as chronic debility and chronic obstructive lung disease. The Board found that the preponderance of evidence is against a finding that any service-connected disability caused or contributed to his death.
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