Coronary Artery Bypass Graft

Question:

I was denied service connection for a CABG that I had done in 2014 after a heart attack. Since coming home from the Gulf War, I have been shown to have bradycardia starting from that July after the war ended to today. It has been shown on my military medical record and civilian medical records. I have never smoked, I eat a healthy diet, and there has never been any heart issues within my family. Can untreated bradycardia lead to a blockage in my LAD over years of my heart pumping so slowly? The VA claimed that my heart attack and CABG was a result of high blood pressure that I started having in 2009. However, my hbp was immediately treated and controlled with medications and have no issues with it at all. For some reason the VA is dismissing the bradycardia even though it never showed up until after my time in the Gulf War.

Jim's Reply:

Bradycardia does not cause or contribute to ischaemic heart disease [IHD]. The fact is that the opposite may well be true if a heart attack has interrupted the electrical fibres that control the beat of the heart. That your hypertension was noted and treated in 2009 would tell me that you had most likely had high blood pressure for quite some time before that.  Hypertension happens over time and doesn't usually have any symptoms so the damage is done and you never know it. I have doubts that there's any way to service connect your IHD.