The Veteran's heart disorder is being remanded for further examination and opinion to determine if it is related to his service, particularly his presumed herbicide agent exposure.
The deciding factor: The examiner needs to clarify the current diagnosis of the Veteran's heart condition and assess whether any myocardial infarctions are part of ischemic heart disease or due to an intercurrent cause.
- Claimed conditions
- atriial fibrillation with atrial flutter, cardiomyopathy, congestive heart failure (CHF), heart block
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 3, 2019
- Citation
- 19100167
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 appeal was granted for the severance of service connection for hypertension and entitlement to service connection for a heart disability (claimed as cardiomyopathy) associated with hypertension. The claim for an initial compensable rating for hypertension was remanded.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for obstructive sleep apnea, bilateral cataracts, dry eye syndrome, allergic conjunctivitis, valvular heart disease, cardiomyopathy, and atrial fibrillation as the evidence did not support a finding that these conditions were incurred in or caused by an in-service event.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for the cause of death, determining that it is at least as likely as not that the Veteran's fatal conditions were caused by his military service.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for prostatitis, HIV, CHF, GERD, herpes, a pulmonary disability, headaches, and type 2 diabetes mellitus as the evidence did not support a finding of a current disability or a nexus to service or a service-connected disability.
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