The Board has granted the appellant's petition to reopen her claim for service connection for the cause of the Veteran’s death, finding that new and material evidence supports this claim. The Board also found that the Veteran's service-connected diabetes mellitus substantially contributed to his death from liver cancer.
The deciding factor: The medical opinions provided by Dr. B and other VA examiners supported a link between the Veteran's service-connected diabetes and his development of NASH, which in turn caused his liver cancer, leading to his death.
- Claimed conditions
- Diabetes Mellitus, Hepatocellular carcinoma, NASH cirrhosis
- How they argued it
- Reopened with new and material evidence
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 5, 2019
- Citation
- 19191350
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 19191350.
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 denied increased ratings for diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and a psychiatric disability due to insufficient evidence of the severity required for higher ratings.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for an earlier effective date for his diabetes mellitus, a higher rating for PTSD with alcohol use disorder, and a total disability rating due to service-connected disabilities.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for a heart disability, diabetes mellitus, and peripheral neuropathy of the lower extremities, but denied service connection for multiple tooth trauma.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for service connection of the Veteran's cause of death to obtain an adequate medical opinion regarding the etiology of hepatocellular carcinoma and its relation to the Veteran's service-connected disabilities.
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