The Board denied service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, finding that his death was not attributable to service.
The deciding factor: The primary cause of death was massive head and brain trauma due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound, with no evidence linking it to any service-connected conditions.
- Claimed conditions
- coronary artery bypass graft, residual shell fragment wound of the left shoulder with injury to muscle group III, type II diabetes mellitus, callous right foot, left cheek scar residuals of a shell fragment wound, right buttock scar residuals of a shell fragment wound, residuals of boils
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 28, 2025
- Citation
- A25007730
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 3,319 · Granted: 25% (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 A25007730.
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for service connection for a back disorder, high blood pressure, and type II diabetes mellitus due to errors in development of the claim.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected PTSD prevented him from securing and following a substantially gainful occupation.,Given the grant of TDIU based on his service-connected PTSD, the Veteran has a single service-connected disability rated as total (PTSD) and additional service-connected disabilities independently ratable at 60 percent or more.
- Dismissed
The Veteran withdrew all appeals regarding his service-connected conditions and related disability ratings, effective as of March 16, 2026.
- Denied
The Board has denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for bilateral plantar fasciitis, sinusitis, hypertension, and type II diabetes mellitus due to a lack of current diagnoses or evidence linking these conditions to his active-duty service.
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