The Veteran's claim for compensation under 38 U.S.C. § 1151 is granted as his additional disability of abdominal pain, bloating, frequent bowel movements, diarrhea, and generalized weakness was caused by VA’s failure to timely diagnose the cause of his blood loss following November 2012 surgery.
The deciding factor: VA's failure to timely diagnose the cause of the Veteran's blood loss resulting in a hematoma and fistula is considered an unforeseen circumstance not reasonably foreseeable.
- Claimed conditions
- abdominal pain, bloating, frequent bowel movements, diarrhea, generalized weakness
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 13, 2020
- Citation
- 20065976
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings and service connection, finding that the evidence did not support a higher rating or service connection for any of the claimed conditions.
- Dismissed
The appeal was dismissed due to a procedural defect in compliance with claims-processing rules.
- Denied
The Board denied an earlier effective date for the grant of service connection for diarrhea, as no communication indicating a formal or informal claim for this condition was received prior to March 18, 2024.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for seborrheic dermatitis and remanded the claims for asthma, chronic fatigue syndrome, diabetes mellitus type 2, fibromyalgia, GERD, OSA, hemorrhoids, diarrhea, bilateral hearing loss, and tinnitus for further development.
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