The appeal is remanded to obtain additional evidence and a medical opinion regarding the cause of the veteran's death.
The deciding factor: Further development is necessary due to conflicting medical opinions and the need for an updated VA medical opinion on the relationship between service and the cause of death.
- Claimed conditions
- respiratory failure, pneumothorax, bullous emphysema
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 5, 2008
- Citation
- 0814805
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 0814805.
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.
- Denied
The Veteran's causes of death were not found to be service-connected, as there was no credible evidence linking the conditions to his military service.
- Granted
The Veteran's cause of death, including hypertension and diabetes mellitus type II, are presumed to be related to his service in the Republic of Vietnam. The Board has granted service connection for these conditions.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for a rating in excess of 60 percent for bullous emphysema was denied as the evidence did not meet the criteria for such a higher rating.,The Veteran's claim for a rating in excess of 30 percent for bilateral posterior synechia; bilateral dry eye syndrome; left eye band keratopathy; and bilateral pseudophakia (previously rated as uveitis) was denied due to lack of incapacitating episodes during the past year.,The Veteran's claim for a compensable rating for hearing loss was denied because his best corrected visual acuity did not meet the criteria for any higher rating.,The Veteran's claim for service connection for erectile dysfunction (ED) was denied as there was no evidence linking ED to his military service.
- Granted
The Veteran's cause of death was respiratory failure caused by hepatic failure, hepatocellular cancer, and chronic hepatitis C infection.,Service connection for the cause of death is granted as his alcohol and substance abuse were secondary to his service-connected PTSD.
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