The Board has remanded the claims of service connection for the cause of the Veteran’s death and DIC under 38 U.S.C. § 1318 due to a lack of an opinion regarding whether the Veteran's service-connected bilateral lower leg disabilities were a contributory cause of his death from acute congestive heart failure.
The deciding factor: The Board cannot make a fully-informed decision on these claims because no VA examiner has provided an opinion regarding the relationship between the Veteran’s service-connected conditions and his death.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral lower leg disabilities, ischemic cardiomyopathy and coronary artery disease
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 13, 2019
- Citation
- 19118035
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,549 · Granted: 29% (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 19118035.
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 remanded the veteran's claims for service connection of bilateral ankle, lower leg, neck, and thoracic spine disabilities. The Board will review new evidence to determine if these conditions are related to active service.
- Denied
The Board has denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for bilateral ankle disabilities, bilateral lower leg disabilities, neck disability, and thoracic spine disability due to a lack of current disabilities.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings for his service-connected lumbar myositis, psychoneurosis and conversion hysteria, residuals of shrapnel wounds of the left thigh and pelvis with retained foreign bodies and scars, and residuals of shell fragment wounds of the right thigh and left leg. The veteran was also denied entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to service-connected disabilities.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for an initial evaluation in excess of 10 percent for his service-connected coronary artery disease, finding that the evidence did not support a higher rating based on the severity of his condition.
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