The Board denied service connection for asthma, COPD, hemorrhoids, a heart condition, left wrist and thumb conditions, right forearm/elbow condition, lower extremity peripheral neuropathies, and upper extremity peripheral neuropathies as there was no evidence of an in-service event, injury, or disease relevant to these conditions and a nexus between any such occurrence and the present diseases.
The deciding factor: The persuasive weight of the evidence is against an in-service event, injury, or disease relevant to asthma/COPD and a nexus between the Veteran's asthma/COPD and active duty service. The Veteran has a history of tobacco abuse which is considered willful misconduct.
- Claimed conditions
- asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), hemorrhoids, heart condition, left wrist condition, left thumb condition, right forearm/elbow condition, right lower extremity peripheral neuropathy, left lower extremity peripheral neuropathy, right upper extremity peripheral neuropathy, left upper extremity peripheral neuropathy
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 21, 2025
- Citation
- 25006921
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,036 · Granted: 27% (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 25006921.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for a heart condition, including ischemic heart disease. The evidence did not support a finding of a current disability related to service.
- Granted
The Veteran's claim of service connection for PTSD was granted with an initial evaluation of 50 percent, effective September 24, 2007. The appeal regarding the heart condition and sleep disorder is denied. The Veteran's hearing loss prior to August 24, 2015, warrants a 20 percent rating.
- Denied
The Veteran's respiratory disability, including asthma and COPD, is denied as service connection is not warranted due to the condition being solely attributed to smoking.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the cases of sleep apnea and asthma due to a failure to provide proper notice for a hearing.
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