The Board granted service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, finding that his presumptively service-connected hypertension materially contributed to his cardiac arrest, severe metabolic acidosis, and statis epilepticus-intractable seizures.
The deciding factor: The August 2025 VA examiner's opinion was found inadequate due to its failure to address significant fluctuations in blood pressure readings, which could have indicated uncontrolled hypertension contributing to the Veteran's death. The Board resolved the doubt in favor of the appellant and granted service connection based on the evidence being in equipoise.
- Claimed conditions
- hypertension
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 3, 2025
- Citation
- A25103910
Want to see how appeals like this one tend to go? Appeals like mine
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