The Veteran's claims for service connection for tobacco use disorder and a stomach condition are being remanded due to the need for additional development of medical records.
The deciding factor: Additional relevant treatment records, including those from private providers like Dr. Gutnik and Yankton Medical Clinic, must be obtained before a decision can be made on these claims.
- Claimed conditions
- tobacco use disorder, stomach condition
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 7, 2019
- Citation
- 19116905
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,812 · Granted: 30% (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 19116905.
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 Board has granted service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, including other specified trauma and stressor related disorder, persistent depressive disorder, alcohol use disorder, and tobacco use disorder. Service connection for persistent depressive disorder is also granted.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for residuals of resection of small intestine due to remaining internal scar tissue from a service-connected gunshot wound. However, the Veteran does not have a documented current diagnosis of a stomach condition and therefore, service connection for a stomach condition is denied.
- Granted
The Veteran's acquired psychiatric disabilities, including bipolar disorder, PTSD, MDD with psychotic features, depression, anxiety, alcohol use disorder, tobacco use disorder, and psychosis are found to have begun during service or be related to in-service events. The claims for sleep disturbances and bilateral eye disabilities are remanded.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeals for service connection were dismissed due to his withdrawal of the appeal, and he was denied for stomach condition, liver condition, and depression.
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