The Board has remanded the veteran's claims for increased evaluations of his service-connected disabilities due to incomplete examination reports and missing medical records.
The deciding factor: The VA examinations were not thorough enough, and there are missing medical records that need to be obtained before a proper evaluation can be made.
- Claimed conditions
- residuals of fracture of the left elbow with postoperative ligament repair, gunshot wound to the right shoulder
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- July 19, 2004
- Citation
- 0419428
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,440 · Granted: 30% (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 0419428.
What this means for you
A remand is not a loss. The Board sent the case back for more development — often a new exam or missing records — before making a final decision. Many remands later end in a grant, and the decision spells out exactly what the Board wanted to see.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Veteran's right shoulder disability, resulting from a gunshot wound, has been rated at 40 percent since 1970. The Board found that the current rating of 50 percent is warranted based on severe impairment of strength and atrophy of Muscle Groups I, II, and III.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case for further development, including a VA examination to determine the nature and etiology of any current Type I or Type II diabetes mellitus, as well as the severity of the veteran's service-connected right shoulder disability. The issues include determining whether the veteran's diabetes is related to his period of active duty service from May 1967 to March 1970, including as due to presumed herbicide exposure, and whether he should receive a higher rating for his service-connected right shoulder condition.
- Denied
The veteran's service-connected gunshot wound to the right shoulder is currently rated at 20 percent, and his PTSD is rated at 50 percent. The Board found that the evidence does not support a higher rating for either condition.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that further development is required before the claims for increased ratings can be adjudicated.
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