The Board has granted the appellant's claim for service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, finding that his opioid use disorder was related to his service-connected disabilities and led to his untimely death.
The deciding factor: The private medical opinion established a link between the Veteran's chronic pain associated with his service-connected conditions and his development of opioid use disorder, which ultimately caused his oxycodone toxicity resulting in death.
- Claimed conditions
- Oxycodone toxicity, Hypertensive cardiovascular disease
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 5, 2026
- Citation
- A26019825
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 A26019825.
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.
- Denied
The Board denied the claim for service connection for cause of death, finding that there is no evidence to support a causal relationship between the Veteran's military service and his death from gastrointestinal bleeding and hypertensive cardiovascular disease.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for cause of death, finding that there was not sufficient evidence to link his death to his military service or any presumptive conditions related to burn pit exposure. The Board also found no evidence linking his hypertension and cardiovascular disease to his military service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient reasoning and lack of a medical opinion regarding the cause of death. The Veteran's cause of death was listed as cardiorespiratory arrest due to liver cancer, COPD, and ethanolism. A medical opinion is needed to determine if these conditions are related to his military service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has granted a separate 10 percent rating for hypertension, but has remanded the issues of entitlement to higher ratings for other service-connected conditions.
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