The Board denied service connection for a respiratory disability, including asthma, COPD, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, finding that the Veteran did not have a current respiratory disability related to his service.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner determined it was less than 50 percent likely that the Veteran's current respiratory disabilities were incurred in service, as there is no evidence of chronic pulmonary conditions during service and the Veteran's examination at service separation was negative for any complaints or findings relative to the respiratory system.
- Claimed conditions
- asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 8, 2019
- Citation
- 19127149
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,757 · Granted: 23% (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 19127149.
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What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Veteran's respiratory disability, including asthma and COPD, is denied as service connection is not warranted due to the condition being solely attributed to smoking.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the cases of sleep apnea and asthma due to a failure to provide proper notice for a hearing.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeals for service connection for asthma and a 10 percent rating based on multiple noncompensable service-connected disabilities were dismissed. The claim of entitlement to a compensable rating for eczema was denied, while the claim of entitlement to allergic rhinitis was not addressed as it pertained to different issues.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected disabilities rendered him unable to secure and follow substantially gainful employment prior to August 14, 2023.
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