The Board has denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for a liver disability, including Hepatitis C and chronic liver damage. The claims for an acquired psychiatric disorder have been remanded.
The deciding factor: The preponderance of evidence does not support a nexus between the Veteran’s current liver disability and his military service, specifically due to receiving immunizations via air gun in-service. The Board found that the medical opinions were inadequate as they did not address the Veteran's risk factors for contracting Hepatitis C.
- Claimed conditions
- Liver disability, Hepatitis C, Chronic liver damage
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 24, 2020
- Citation
- 20075096
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,062 · Granted: 34% (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 20075096.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board denied a compensable initial rating for Hepatitis C, finding that the Veteran's condition was asymptomatic and did not meet the criteria for any higher rating.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's Hepatitis C with cirrhosis is related to service, and therefore grants service connection for these conditions.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's liver disability has not resulted in any compensable symptoms, as he had a previous history of liver disease but is currently asymptomatic.,The Veteran's left ear hearing loss has been rated at noncompensable level due to the absence of more than Level I hearing acuity.
- Partly granted
The Veteran's depressive disorder is granted as service-connected, with the Board finding it related to his active duty service and aggravated by his service-connected tibia fractures. The claim for hepatitis C is remanded due to inadequate medical opinions regarding its etiology.,Service connection for depressive disorder is established based on direct evidence of a current disability (depressive disorder) that was incurred during active duty service.
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