The Veteran's DIC claim under 38 U.S.C. § 1318 was denied as he did not meet the durational requirement for a total disability rating.,Service connection for the cause of death was also denied, with the Board concluding that COPD did not begin during service or is otherwise related to an in-service injury, event, or disease.
The deciding factor: The Veteran's DIC claim under 38 U.S.C. § 1318 was denied as he did not meet the durational requirement for a total disability rating.
- Claimed conditions
- residuals of rheumatic fever with systolic heart murmur to include nonobstructive coronary artery disease status post heart valve replacement, fractured left elbow distal humerus, bilateral high frequency hearing loss, heart valve replacement surgical scar
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 2, 2020
- Citation
- A20017849
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,886 · Granted: 24% (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 A20017849.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Veteran's cause of death was not service-connected, and the criteria for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation under section 1318 were also not met.
- Granted
The Veteran's claim for service connection for hypertension as due to service-connected diabetes mellitus was denied. However, the Board granted service connection for hypertension on a direct basis under the PACT Act. The Veteran's claims for an initial compensable rating for bilateral nuclear sclerotic cataracts and a disability greater than 20 percent for bilateral high frequency hearing loss were both denied.
- Denied
The Veteran's TDIU claim was denied as he had engaged in substantially gainful employment during the appeal period, and thus did not meet the criteria for a TDIU.
- Granted
The Board has granted an earlier effective date of June 1, 2015 for the grant of a TDIU and basic eligibility to DEA benefits. The Veteran's service-connected disabilities rendered him unable to secure or follow a substantially gainful occupation as of that date.
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