The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for the cause of his death and denied entitlement to Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) under 38 U.S.C. § 1318, finding that there was no evidence supporting exposure to Agent Orange in Germany and thus no basis for service connection based on such exposure.
The deciding factor: The Board determined that the Veteran did not have a service-connected disability rated as totally disabling for at least ten years prior to his death, which is required under 38 U.S.C. § 1318 for DIC benefits.
- Claimed conditions
- gunshot wound to chest, Parkinson's disease, dementia
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 19, 2020
- Citation
- A20015703
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,699 · Granted: 17% (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 A20015703.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Veteran is granted special monthly compensation (SMC) at the (o) rate and SMC at the (r)(2) rate, effective January 19, 2025. The decision finds that the Veteran's service-connected conditions warrant these awards due to his need for aid and attendance.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for lumbosacral strain with degenerative disc disease, headaches, an acquired psychiatric disorder (other specified trauma and stressor related disorder and PTSD), and Parkinson's disease. The conditions are presumed to be due to exposure in service.,Service connection is established for all four claimed conditions.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected conditions, including Parkinson's disease and related disabilities of the upper and lower extremities, have caused loss of use in both hands and need for aid and attendance due to his lower extremity disability, kidney disease, and neurogenic bladder. The Board has granted SMC based on these findings.
- Denied
The Veteran's tinnitus and hearing loss claims are denied as there is no current diagnosis of these conditions.,The Veteran's high cholesterol, dementia, stroke, prostate cancer, cataracts, diabetes, hypertension, CHF, and myocardial infarction claims are denied due to lack of service connection evidence or insufficient evidence to establish a nexus between the disabilities and active duty service.,The Veteran was exposed to toxins during his military service but there is no evidence linking these exposures to any of the claimed conditions.
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