The Veteran's causes of death were not related to his service-connected conditions, and there was no evidence of herbicide exposure. The Board denied the claim for service connection for cause of death.
The deciding factor: There is no indication that any of the service-connected disabilities contributed substantially or materially to cause death, or aided or lent assistance to the production of death.
- Claimed conditions
- cardiopulmonary arrest, severe bradycardia, pulmonary embolism, gastrointestinal bleeding, lymphadenopathy, probable lymphoma/malignancy
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 3, 2019
- Citation
- 19190650
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,677 · Granted: 26% (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 19190650.
What this means for you
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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 a duty to obtain a medical opinion regarding whether the Veteran's death was linked to his service, including exposure to Agent Orange.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for pulmonary embolism as secondary to the Veteran's service-connected status post spigelian herniorrhaphy, finding that the surgery increased her risk of developing a pulmonary embolism.
- Granted
The Veteran's pulmonary disability is directly related to his active service, and the Board has granted service connection for this condition.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for the cause of his death, finding that there was no evidence linking any of the immediate or contributing causes of his death to his period of active duty service. The Board also found that the PACT Act did not apply in this case as the Veteran served prior to the period when herbicide agents were presumed used.
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