The Board found that the Veteran's death was not proximately caused by carelessness, negligence, lack of proper skill, error in judgment, or similar instance of fault on the part of VA. The evidence did not support a finding that the Veteran's discharge from the hospital was due to negligence or carelessness.
The deciding factor: The Board found no evidence indicating that the Veteran’s death was caused by any fault on the part of VA personnel in providing medical care, and concluded that the timing of the myocardial infarction was not predictable and unlikely to have been different in any other setting.
- Claimed conditions
- Arteriosclerotic heart disease, Hypertensive cardiovascular disease, Diabetes mellitus, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 30, 2020
- Citation
- 20007406
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,037 · Granted: 21% (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 20007406.
What this means for you
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The Board has granted the Veteran's claim for payment or reimbursement of ambulance travel expenses incurred on June 17, 2025 due to an emergency heart attack. The ambulance service was provided by a volunteer organization and later intercepted by a higher-tier EMT company.
- Denied
The Board denied the claim for service connection for cause of death, finding that there is no evidence to support a causal relationship between the Veteran's military service and his death from gastrointestinal bleeding and hypertensive cardiovascular disease.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's death was caused by acute hypoxic respiratory failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, with hypertension as a significant contributing factor. The Board finds that remand is necessary to obtain the Veteran's complete military records and treatment records.
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