The Board denied the Veteran's claim for compensation under 38 U.S.C. § 1151 because the infection was a known risk of total hip arthroplasty and adequately disclosed in the informed consent form signed by the Veteran.
The deciding factor: The Board found that the infection was not caused by VA carelessness, negligence, or lack of proper skill, as evidenced by multiple medical opinions concluding that postoperative infections are common occurrences despite best efforts to reduce them.
- Claimed conditions
- Infection
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- August 29, 2019
- Citation
- 19167234
Veterans Law Judge
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 19167234.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board denied compensation under 38 U.S.C. § 1151 for total left knee replacement due to a post-total knee replacement infection, finding no evidence of carelessness, negligence, lack of proper skill or error in judgment by the VA.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, attributing it to ischemic heart disease due to exposure to herbicide agents in Vietnam. The appellant was successful in establishing that her husband's death was caused by his service-connected condition.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's left eye was removed due to a torn retina and subsequent infection. The Board is remanding the case for an examination to determine if VA carelessness or negligence caused this additional disability.
- Denied
The Board found that the Veteran's infection following his right total hip arthroplasty was not caused by VA negligence or carelessness, and thus denied compensation under 38 U.S.C.A. § 1151.
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