The Veteran's appeal was dismissed due to the death of the appellant, and no service connection decision could be made.
The deciding factor: The appellant died during the pendency of the appeal, making it impossible for the Board to make a service connection determination.
- Claimed conditions
- myelodysplastic syndrome, right shoulder shrapnel; foreign body
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 21, 2020
- Citation
- 20068223
What this means for you
A dismissal means the Board did not decide the issue on its merits — usually because it was withdrawn or had become moot. It says more about procedure than about whether a claim like this can win.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for myelodysplastic syndrome, finding that the Veteran had presumptive exposure to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the matter to obtain a medical opinion regarding whether the Veteran's significant conditions at the time of his death were related to his service, including any toxic exposure risk activities (TERA), and if so, whether they had a material influence on the acceleration of his death.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeals for service connection and initial rating were dismissed due to an improper concurrent election of review options.
- Partly granted
The Board granted restoration of a 10 percent disability rating for the service-connected painful left knee scar, effective October 26, 2022, and remanded the issue of entitlement to service connection for myelodysplastic syndrome.
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