The Board denied service connection for respiratory failure and COPD, as well as discoid lupus, due to the lack of evidence linking these conditions to active service. The Veteran's current diagnoses are not related to their service-connected heart or renal disabilities.
The deciding factor: The VA examiners provided negative nexus opinions, stating that the Veteran's current respiratory disorder and lupus are not caused by their service-connected congestive heart failure and/or chronic renal failure.
- Claimed conditions
- respiratory failure, discoid lupus
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 12, 2021
- Citation
- 21063026
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,287 · Granted: 23% (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 21063026.
What this means for you
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What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Veteran's causes of death were not found to be service-connected, as there was no credible evidence linking the conditions to his military service.
- Granted
The Veteran's cause of death, including hypertension and diabetes mellitus type II, are presumed to be related to his service in the Republic of Vietnam. The Board has granted service connection for these conditions.
- Granted
The Veteran's cause of death was respiratory failure caused by hepatic failure, hepatocellular cancer, and chronic hepatitis C infection.,Service connection for the cause of death is granted as his alcohol and substance abuse were secondary to his service-connected PTSD.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the severance of service connected death benefits was improper and grants the appeal.
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