The Board has determined that an additional opinion is needed regarding the veteran's cause of death due to a conflict with the revised death certificate and the results of the March 2000 autopsy report. The claim for service connection for the cause of death will be remanded.
The deciding factor: An additional VA physician opinion is required to address whether the veteran's alcoholism and polysubstance abuse were solely related to his service-connected PTSD, and if it could be ruled a suicide.
- Claimed conditions
- hypertensive cardiovascular disease, mitral valve prolapse
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 13, 2006
- Citation
- 0604072
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.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for basal cell carcinoma and a higher initial disability rating of 70 percent for other specified trauma-and-stressor-related disorder, while denying increased ratings for lumbosacral strain, right lower radiculopathy, bilateral hearing loss, chronic rhinitis, tension headaches, and mitral valve prolapse.
- Partly granted
The Veteran's service-connected mitral valve prolapse was denied a rating in excess of 60 percent prior to January 11, 2008 and from July 12, 2008 to December 22, 2024. However, the Board granted a 100 percent rating for this condition from January 11, 2008 to July 11, 2008 and from December 23, 2024 onwards.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for the Veteran's cause of death, finding that his hypertensive cardiovascular disease began during service.
- Partly granted
The Board denied service connection for bilateral sensorineural hearing loss and remanded the claims for other conditions due to insufficient evidence.
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