The Veteran's cause of death is related to a heart attack in service that caused his pericarditis, which ultimately led to his death. The Board has ordered the retrieval of the Veteran’s United States Naval Reserve records to verify all active duty for training and inactive duty training dates.
The deciding factor: The Veteran suffered an acute anterior myocardial infarction during service, which is considered a disease incurred in service that may be linked to pericarditis resulting from his heart attack.
- Claimed conditions
- Pericarditis, Cardiac arrest, Arrhythmia, Massive acute myocardial infarction
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 6, 2019
- Citation
- 19143734
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,017 · Granted: 36% (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 19143734.
What this means for you
A remand is not a loss. The Board sent the case back for more development — often a new exam or missing records — before making a final decision. Many remands later end in a grant, and the decision spells out exactly what the Board wanted to see.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeals for increased rating, service connection, and TDIU have been dismissed due to his withdrawal of all claims prior to the promulgation of a decision.
- Denied
The Board has determined that the Veteran's death was not caused by any service-connected disability, and therefore denied entitlement to service connection for the cause of his death.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for coronary artery disease, ischemic cardiomyopathy, aortic aneurysm as secondary to coronary artery disease, and arrhythmia as secondary to coronary artery disease. Sleep apnea was remanded for further consideration.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the matter to obtain relevant SSA records that could provide information pertinent to the Veteran's appeal.
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