The Board has decided to remand the case due to insufficient evidence regarding the cause of death and whether exposure to herbicide agents in Vietnam contributed to it. The Appellant's claim will be reviewed again with a focus on obtaining additional medical opinions.
The deciding factor: The Board requires further medical opinion to determine if the Veteran’s esophageal cancer, which led to his death from septic shock, was related to exposure to herbicide agents in Vietnam.
- Claimed conditions
- septic shock, lactic acidosis, acute respiratory failure, schele liver ischemia, hepatic and esophageal cancer
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 7, 2019
- Citation
- 19116036
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 882 · Granted: 17% (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 19116036.
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 determined that a remand is necessary to correct a pre-decisional duty to assist error and obtain a new medical opinion regarding the relationship between the Veteran's service, his death, and any service-connected disabilities.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for the cause of death due to lack of evidence showing a link between any service-connected disability and the Veteran's death. The conditions listed on his death certificate were not related to his military service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for service connection for the cause of death and burial benefits due to a lack of medical opinion regarding the Veteran's exposure at Camp Lejeune, which could impact his eligibility for these benefits.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for the cause of his death, finding that there was no evidence linking any of the immediate or contributing causes of his death to his period of active duty service. The Board also found that the PACT Act did not apply in this case as the Veteran served prior to the period when herbicide agents were presumed used.
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