The Veteran's service-connected psychiatric disability is found to be a contributory cause of his death. Service connection for the cause of death is granted.
The deciding factor: Service-connected psychiatric disability contributed substantially or materially to the Veteran’s death due to self-medicating with alcohol and cocaine, which led to hypertension and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease resulting in chronic kidney disease.
- Claimed conditions
- Major Depression, Patellofemoral Syndrome (Left Knee), Radiculopathy (Right Lower Extremity), Chondromalacia (Right Knee with Arthritis and Limited Extension), Scar, Right Knee, Ligament Sprain, Right Ankle
- How they argued it
- Reopened with new and material evidence
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 30, 2019
- Citation
- 19133629
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Board granted an initial evaluation of 70 percent for the Veteran's acquired psychiatric disability, to include PTSD, anxiety disorder, and major depression.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for an acquired psychiatric disability, to include PTSD, resolving reasonable doubt in the Veteran's favor based on a corroborated in-service stressor event.
- Partly granted
The Board granted an effective date of December 20, 2007 for the grant of service connection for posttraumatic stress disorder and increased ratings to 70% from March 27, 2020 to June 5, 2020, and 100% from June 5, 2020. The claim for a total disability rating based on individual unemployability was denied.
- Dismissed
The appeal was dismissed due to a procedural defect in the Veteran's January 2022 VA Form 10182, which resulted from a prohibited concurrent election under VA claims processing rules.
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