The Veteran's cause of death was not related to his service or any service-connected conditions, and the Board denied service connection for the cause of the Veteran’s death.
The deciding factor: No medical opinion supported a link between the Veteran's service-connected disabilities and his fatal urinary tract infection, uropathy, and/or chronic kidney disease.
- Claimed conditions
- Urinary tract infection, Obstructive uropathy, Chronic kidney disease Stage IV
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 10, 2019
- Citation
- 19127589
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,963 · Granted: 32% (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 19127589.
What this means for you
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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 Board denied the Veteran's claim of service connection for cause of death, finding that his service-connected conditions did not contribute to his death. The evidence showed well-controlled heart symptoms prior to death and no causal relationship between anxiety and cardiopulmonary disease or renal failure.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran seeks an earlier effective date for residuals of bladder cancer in remission, urinary tract infection, and hematospemia. The Board finds that the records needed to substantiate this claim have not been obtained and orders them to be obtained.
- Remanded (sent back)
The appeal for service connection for urinary tract infection is remanded due to a pre-decisional duty-to-assist error in the medical opinions provided.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for urinary tract infection and back disability, as well as initial ratings in excess of the assigned percentages for various conditions, including PTSD with bruxism, chronic urticaria, left hip strain, left knee meniscal tear, and TDIU.
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