The Board denied service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, finding that his service-connected disabilities did not contribute to or cause his death.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner opined that the Veteran's service-connected disabilities were less likely than not to have caused or contributed to his death due to septic shock and pneumonia.
- Claimed conditions
- Acute lung injury, Septic shock, Staphylococcal pneumonia, Influenza
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 22, 2025
- Citation
- 25007004
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,680 · Granted: 24% (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 25007004.
What this means for you
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What you can do next
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- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the matter for further development, including obtaining additional medical opinions and relevant treatment records.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for a medical opinion regarding the Veteran's cause of death, specifically addressing whether his respiratory failure, septic shock, hemorrhagic shock, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease, and chronic osteomyelitis of the right leg were related to in-service toxic exposure or an in-service right leg injury.
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