The Board has granted payment or reimbursement of medical expenses incurred from June 22 to 23, 2016, at Mease Dunedin Hospital (MDH) due to the Veteran's emergency condition and the unavailability of a VA facility.
The deciding factor: The decision was based on the Veteran's reasonable expectation that delay in seeking immediate medical attention would have been hazardous to his life or health, and the fact that a VA facility was not feasibly available during his emergency.
- Claimed conditions
- abdominal pain, appendicitis, bowel obstruction, pancreatitis, irritable bowel syndrome, gastroesophageal reflux disease, gastroenteritis, gastritis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 3, 2019
- Citation
- 19142469
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,035 · Granted: 30% (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 19142469.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to unclear evidence regarding the diagnosis of gastritis and its relation to service. The Veteran needs to provide records, and a VA examiner will review his medical history and determine if gastritis is related to his military service or any other conditions.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for adhesions as secondary to irritable bowel syndrome, finding that there was no nexus between the claimed condition and service or a service-connected disability.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for asthma, COPD, pancreatitis, stroke, and left arm weakness (claimed as secondary to stroke) based on the presumption of exposure to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune. The evidence did not support a finding that these conditions were related to service or due to in-service exposure.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection for esophageal stricture and gastroesophageal reflux disease due to a failure to obtain a medical opinion regarding the latter condition. The claim will be reconsidered after obtaining such an opinion.
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