The Board denied the claim for service connection for cause of death, finding that there was no evidence linking the Veteran's service-connected disabilities to his death.
The deciding factor: The medical evidence did not show a causal link between the Veteran's service-connected conditions and his death from sepsis, bronchopneumonia, hypertensive heart disease, and aortic aneurysm.
- Claimed conditions
- sepsis, bronchopneumonia, hypertensive heart disease, aortic aneurysm
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating
- Not verified here — check the original decision
- Decision date
- January 16, 2020
- Citation
- 20004199
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,240 · Granted: 28% (granted or partly granted, in the indexed 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. Read the original VA decision (opens in a new tab) using citation 20004199.
What this means for you
A final Board denial may be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, generally within 120 days of the Board mailing date. A Supplemental Claim with new and relevant evidence is a separate option. Another Higher-Level Review of the Board decision is not available. Check your own notice: this historical decision does not set your deadline.
What you can do next
Use your own notice and decision stage. A remanded issue is not a final court-appealable denial. VA review guidance and CAVC filing instructions (U.S. federal; reviewed October 7, 2026).
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Whole decision: Remanded (sent back)
The Board has denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for aortic aneurysm secondary to his service-connected hypertension, squamous cell cancer of the skin, and benign prostatic hyperplasia. The issues of entitlement to compensable ratings for hypertension and colon cancer residuals are also remanded due to potential impact on the issue of a 10 percent evaluation based on multiple noncompensable service-connected disabilities.
- Whole decision: Denied
The Veteran's cause of death, kidney cancer, is not service-connected. The Board found that the Veteran's cause of death was not related to his military service or a service-connected disability.
- Whole decision: Granted
The Veteran's cause of death, metastatic lung cancer, was found to be related to service and caused or contributed substantially to the Veteran's death. The Board granted entitlement to service connection for the Veteran's cause of death.
- Whole decision: Granted
The Veteran's service-connected disabilities, including diabetes, peripheral neuropathy, hypertension, and other conditions, rendered him unable to secure and follow substantially gainful employment prior to July 21, 2025.
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