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
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 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.
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- Granted
The Veteran's initial PCAFC application was granted in December 2022, effective from December 21, 2022. The Board found that the criteria for eligibility were met since his initial application in December 2020.
- Granted
The Veteran's TDIU and DEA were granted effective July 18, 2020. The case involves the Veteran's service-connected disabilities including PTSD, OSA, diabetes, cataracts, neuropathy, and other conditions.
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