The Board has granted the reopening of the claim for service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death and has determined that the Veteran's PTSD contributed to his smoking, which in turn caused his acute respiratory failure, pneumonia, metastatic lung cancer, and diabetes mellitus. The Board found that these conditions were related to his service-connected PTSD.
The deciding factor: The private medical opinion provided by Dr. T.K.G. established a link between the Veteran's service-connected PTSD and his smoking habit, which ultimately led to his death from metastatic lung cancer due to pneumonia.
- Claimed conditions
- Acute respiratory failure, Pneumonia, Metastatic lung cancer, Diabetes mellitus
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 25, 2022
- Citation
- 22011106
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 22011106.
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.
- Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's claim for payment or reimbursement of ambulance travel expenses incurred on June 17, 2025 due to an emergency heart attack. The ambulance service was provided by a volunteer organization and later intercepted by a higher-tier EMT company.
- Denied
The Board has determined that the Veteran's death was not caused by any service-connected disability, and thus denied his claim for service connection for cause of death.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, finding that none of the listed causes were related to his military service and no service-connected disability contributed to his death.
- Denied
The Veteran's service-connected disabilities did not preclude him from obtaining or maintaining substantially gainful employment prior to September 28, 2021. From September 28, 2021 to May 22, 2022, the Veteran had a combined total disability rating of 100%, which rendered the issue moot as he was already receiving SMC based on his service-connected disabilities.
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