The Veteran's death was caused by a fulminant skull infection following right mastoidectomy surgery performed outside VA. The post-infection care provided by VA was highly competent and at an extraordinary level, but did not result in additional disability or death due to negligence, lack of proper skill, error in judgment, or similar instance of fault on the part of VA.
The deciding factor: The Board found that treatment administered by VA from July 3, 2012 until March 10, 2013 did not result in additional disability or death due to negligence, lack of proper skill, error in judgment, or similar instance of fault on the part of VA.
- Claimed conditions
- superinfection, aspiration
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 18, 2019
- Citation
- 19195273
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,200 · Granted: 43% (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 19195273.
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