The Board is remanding the case for further development and consideration, including obtaining additional medical records and a VA examiner's opinion regarding the cause of death.
The deciding factor: The current evidence does not provide sufficient information to determine if the veteran's service-connected disabilities were the immediate or underlying causes of his death.
- Claimed conditions
- chronic obstructive lung disease, acute myocardial infarction
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 13, 2005
- Citation
- 0501004
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,293 · Granted: 17% (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 0501004.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's death is attributed to multiple conditions, including chronic obstructive lung disease. The Board has decided that the service connection for the cause of death must be remanded due to a duty-to-assist error.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for exostosis right foot and bilateral plantar fasciitis, but denied service connection for hysterectomy, left shoulder pain, right shoulder pain, dysmenorrhea, chronic obstructive lung disease, female sexual arousal disorder, and a foot callus.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for an addendum opinion regarding the Veteran's cause of death, specifically addressing whether in-service toxic exposures led to hypertension and ultimately caused his death.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for a medical opinion regarding the etiologies of the Veteran's depression, alcohol use disorder, hypertension, and COPD in relation to his cause of death.
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