The Veteran's cause of death, hepatorenal syndrome with end stage liver disease, is found to be related to his service-connected PTSD and alcohol abuse. As the Veteran's PTSD was found to be a contributory cause of death, service connection for the cause of death is granted.
The deciding factor: Service connection for PTSD with alcohol abuse as a contributory cause of the Veteran's cause of death has been established by the preponderance of the evidence.
- Claimed conditions
- Hepatorenal syndrome, End stage liver disease
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 19, 2019
- Citation
- 19186645
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,062 · Granted: 34% (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 19186645.
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.
- Denied
The Board has denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for cause of death due to end stage renal failure and end stage liver disease, finding that there is no evidence linking these conditions to his military service.
- Denied
The Veteran's death was caused by end stage liver disease, which the Board found to be related to alcohol abuse rather than service-connected hypertension. The Board denied service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death.
- Denied
The Veteran's death was not related to service-connected disability, and he did not meet the criteria for DIC or survivor pension benefits. The Appellant also does not qualify for accrued benefits due to a lack of pending claims at the time of her husband's death.
- Denied
The Board denied the claim for service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, finding that there was no evidence of herbicide exposure during his military service and thus not meeting the criteria for presumptive service connection.
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