The Veteran's death was caused by sepsis due to or as a consequence of peripheral vascular disease. His diabetes mellitus, type II, is presumed to have been incurred in service due to herbicide exposure. The cause of death and the service connection for diabetes mellitus are both remanded.
The deciding factor: The examiner must determine whether it is at least as likely as not that the Veteran's service-connected diabetes mellitus caused his death or contributed substantially or materially to his death.
- Claimed conditions
- diabetes mellitus, type II, sepsis, peripheral vascular disease
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 8, 2019
- Citation
- 19117040
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,287 · Granted: 23% (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 19117040.
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
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Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
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