The Board granted service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, finding that his heart conditions were related to his period of service.
The deciding factor: The private medical opinion from Dr. V.A.C., a board certified and residency trained occupational/environmental physician, was deemed more probative than the VA examiner's opinion.
- Claimed conditions
- end stage heart failure, severe aortic valve insufficiency, chronic pansinusitis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 24, 2025
- Citation
- A25054533
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,762 · 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 A25054533.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's tinnitus had its onset in service and is granted service connection.,A compensable rating for chronic pansinusitis prior to August 15, 2025 is remanded due to a duty-to-assist error.,A compensable rating for migraine with migraine variants is remanded due to a duty-to-assist error.,Service connection for sleep apnea is remanded due to a duty-to-assist error and the need for a toxic exposure risk activity (TERA) opinion pursuant to the PACT Act.,Service connection for right hip disability (osteoarthritis) is remanded due to a duty-to-assist error.
- Denied
The Veteran's cause of death was not due to a service-connected disability. The Board found that the evidence did not support service connection for his heart condition, and thus denied both service connection for the cause of death and DIC benefits under 38 U.S.C. § 1318.
- Granted
The Veteran's service connection claims for chronic pansinusitis, coronary artery disease (CAD), type 2 diabetes mellitus (diabetes), right upper extremity peripheral neuropathy (PN), and left upper extremity PN are all granted.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for hypertension, end-stage heart failure, and chronic UTIs as secondary to the Veteran's service-connected PTSD. A 70 percent rating was also granted for PTSD.
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