The Board denied the claim for service connection for cause of death, finding that there was no evidence to support a link between the Veteran's psychiatric disorder and service, or any other condition related to service. The Board concluded that the Veteran did not have a heart disability due to service that contributed to his death from cardiac arrest.
The deciding factor: The VA psychiatrist provided an opinion stating that the symptoms reported by the Veteran’s daughters did not fully support a diagnosis of PTSD and instead suggested a nonspecific anxiety disorder secondary to dermatitis. The Board found this opinion more probative than the appellant's belief in a link between PTSD and death.
- Claimed conditions
- cardiac arrest, hypertensive cardiovascular disease
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 30, 2019
- Citation
- 19141679
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,604 · Granted: 65% (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 19141679.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for the cause of death due to lack of evidence showing a link between any service-connected disability and the Veteran's death. The conditions listed on his death certificate were not related to his military service.
- Granted
The Veteran's hypertension is related to herbicide exposure during service and contributed substantially to his cause of death.,Service connection for both hypertension and the cause of death (hypertensive cardiovascular disease) is granted.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims of service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death and entitlement to VA DIC under 38 U.S.C. § 1151 due to a need for further evaluation regarding the relationship between any identified pulmonary/respiratory disability, including bronchial asthma, and active service.
- Denied
The Veteran's death due to cardiac arrest and atherosclerotic heart disease was not related or attributable to his military service, thus denying the claim for service connection for cause of death.
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