Citation Nr: 0004999 Decision Date: 02/25/00 Archive Date: 03/07/00 DOCKET NO. 98-19 115 ) DATE ) ) On appeal from the Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office in Nashville, Tennessee THE ISSUE Entitlement to service connection for a heart disorder. REPRESENTATION Appellant represented by: Tennessee Department of Veterans' Affairs ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD Daniel R. McGarry INTRODUCTION The veteran had active service from April 1953 to June 1973. This matter came before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from a rating decision in part of which the regional office (RO) denied entitlement to service connection for a heart disorder. FINDING OF FACT The veteran has not submitted competent medical evidence that his heart disorder is related to a disease or injury he incurred during his active military service. CONCLUSION OF LAW The claim of entitlement to service connection for a heart disorder is not well grounded. 38 U.S.C.A. § 5107(a) (West 1991). REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION The issue before the Board is whether the veteran is entitled to service connection for a heart disorder. A veteran who submits a claim for benefits to the VA shall have the burden of offering sufficient evidence to justify a belief by a fair and impartial individual that the claim is well grounded. See 38 U.S.C.A. § 5107(a) (West 1991). In the absence of evidence of a well-grounded claim, there is no duty to assist the veteran in developing the facts pertinent to his claim, and the claim must fail. Epps v. Gober, 126 F.3d 1464, 1467- 68 (Fed. Cir. 1997). The veteran must demonstrate three elements to establish that a claim is well grounded. First, the veteran must present medical evidence of a current disability. Second, the veteran must produce medical or, in some instances, lay evidence of an in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury. Finally, the veteran must offer medical evidence of a nexus between the claimed in-service disease or injury and the current disability. Epps, 126 F.3d at 1468- 69. A veteran may also establish a well-grounded claim for service connection under the chronicity provision of 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(b) (1999), which is applicable where evidence, regardless of its date, shows that a veteran had a chronic condition in service or during an applicable presumption period, and that the same condition currently exists. Such evidence must be medical unless the condition at issue is a type as to which, under case law, lay observation is considered competent to demonstrate its existence. If the chronicity provision is not applicable, a claim still may be well grounded pursuant to the same regulation if the evidence shows that the condition was observed during service or any applicable presumption period and continuity of symptomatology was demonstrated thereafter, and includes competent evidence relating the current condition to that symptomatology. Savage v. Gober, 10 Vet. App. 488, 495-98 (1997). Organic heart disease is presumed to be serviced connected if the veteran develops such disease to a compensable degree within one year after his separation from service. 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.307, 3.309 (1999). The veteran asserts that he was exposed to chemicals during his active military service which caused him to develop "hardening of the arteries" which ultimately led to the development of a heart disorder. His service medical records do not show that he had complaints, diagnoses, or treatment for a heart disorder during his active military service. In a report of medical history completed during his retirement medical examination in September 1972, the veteran indicated that he had a history of pain or pressure in his chest, but denied a history of heart trouble, shortness of breath, palpitation, and pounding heart. He stated that he was in good health. An examiner elaborated that the veteran's indication of pain or pressure in his chest referred to difficulty breathing associated with back pain. The veteran's heart was noted to be clinically normal. An electrocardiogram and a chest X-ray were normal. The examiner's report contained no indication of a heart disorder. Further, the record contains no indication that the veteran had compensable disability from a heart disorder with his first post-service year. In a report of medical history dated in April 1974, the veteran reported that he was in good health and denied symptoms of shortness of breath, chest pain or pressure, heart pounding or palpitation, and heart trouble. The veteran's assertions that he was exposed to chemical substances during his active service are accepted as credible. See King v. Brown, 5 Vet. App. 19, 21 (1993). Service personnel records and medical records show that his military job, at least during a portion of his service, involved aircraft maintenance. The evidence also tends to show that he was exposed to potentially dangerous chemicals in his civilian job after his separation from service. Medical evidence indicates that the veteran does have current disability from a heart disorder. Treatment records indicate that he has a history of myocardial infarction and coronary artery disease. However, such treatment records contain no indication that the heart or coronary artery disorders are related to any disease or injury he incurred during his active military service. Beyond the veteran's assertions, there is no evidence of record linking the heart disorder to the veteran's period of active service. The veteran's assertions are insufficient to satisfy the nexus requirement because the record contains no evidence that he has the expertise to render an opinion concerning the nexus of his current heart-related disability with any disease or injury he incurred in service. Espiritu v. Derwinski, 2 Vet. App. 492, 494-5 (1992). As the veteran has not submitted competent medical evidence of a nexus between his heart disorder and disease or injury incurred in active service, his claim must be denied as not well grounded. Epps, 126 F.3d at 1467-68. The Board views its discussion as sufficient to inform the veteran of the elements necessary to well ground his claim and to explain why his claim for service connection for a heart disorder is denied. In summary, in order to support a well-grounded claim, the veteran must submit competent medical evidence that his current disability from a heart disorder is related to a disease or injury he incurred during his active military service. ORDER A well-grounded claim not having been submitted, service connection for a heart disorder is denied. SANDRA L. SMITH Acting Member, Board of Veterans' Appeals