The Board has requested an expert medical opinion regarding the cause of the veteran's death and is remanding the case for further review.
The deciding factor: The severity of the in-service brain/skull injury, combined with the veteran's service-connected conditions, may have contributed to his death.
- Claimed conditions
- Traumatic encephalopathy, Loss of part of the skull
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 13, 2006
- Citation
- 0638752
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,547 · Granted: 20% (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 0638752.
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 Board has remanded the case for additional development to determine if the Veteran's cause of death was related to his service, including his service in Vietnam. The examiner is asked to provide an opinion on whether a psychiatric disorder and suicide are at least as likely as not caused by or related to service.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's claim for a rating in excess of 30 percent for traumatic encephalopathy has been dismissed due to the death of the appellant.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for reimbursement of unauthorized medical expenses from March 21, 2006 to March 31, 2006 due to lack of evidence showing that VA or other federal facilities were not feasibly available and that the Veteran was stable enough to be transferred.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claim due to insufficient evidence regarding his service connection for residuals of a head injury. The case will be further developed by the RO.
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