The Board has decided to remand the Veteran's claims for service connection for cold injury residuals of his right and left hands due to a duty to assist error in obtaining missing service records. The Veteran is entitled to an examination to determine if he currently has residuals from cold injuries, and any etiology.
The deciding factor: The Board found that VA did not meet its heightened duty to assist the Veteran by failing to provide complete information for the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in obtaining his service records. The Veteran is entitled to an examination to determine if he currently has residuals from cold injuries, and any etiology.
- Claimed conditions
- right hand cold injury residuals, left hand cold injury residuals
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 5, 2019
- Citation
- A19003351
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,990 · Granted: 35% (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 A19003351.
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 Board denied service connection for cold injury residuals of the bilateral feet and hands due to a lack of evidence showing frostbite injuries during service, and found that the Veteran's current symptoms are not related to his in-service frostbite.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection and TDIU due to issues related to cold injury residuals, including right and left hand and foot cold injuries, as well as an acquired psychiatric disorder. The case must be returned to the RO for further development.
- Granted
The Veteran's service connection claims for cold injury residuals of the hands and feet, as well as Raynaud's disease, are granted. The Veteran's claim for a neck condition (claimed as car wreck) is denied.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims of service connection for left and right hand cold injury residuals due to an inadequate examination in a previous decision.
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