The Board has denied service connection for chronic pneumonia and remanded the issue of service connection for a heart disability. The Veteran's claim for chronic pneumonia is not supported by evidence of current disability, while his heart disability claim requires additional medical opinion to determine its relationship to service.
The deciding factor: The preponderance of the competent evidence fails to reflect a current chronic respiratory condition (chronic pneumonia) and there are no opinions provided regarding the Veteran's heart disability or ischemic heart disease.
- Claimed conditions
- chronic pneumonia, heart disability (ischemic heart disease and chronic tachycardia with pacemaker)
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 24, 2019
- Citation
- 19105587
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,861 · Granted: 27% (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 19105587.
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.
- Granted
The Veteran's service connection for chronic pneumonia and increased rating for major depression have been granted. The Veteran's sinus headaches are not rated higher than the current 30 percent evaluation.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection for asthma, chronic bronchitis, chronic pneumonia, and COPD due to a pre-decisional duty to assist error.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for a respiratory disorder, including chronic pneumonia, and to include as due to in-service exposure to PCBs. The most persuasive evidence demonstrated that the Veteran's currently diagnosed left lobe pneumonia did not have its onset during active duty service and was not otherwise etiologically related to service.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for pleurisy and chronic pneumonia, finding that there is no evidence of a current disability related to his service-connected fracture of the 8th and 9th left ribs.
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