The Board has remanded the case due to inconsistencies in the Veteran's marital status and the need for additional medical opinions regarding the cause of death.
The deciding factor: The claim is being remanded because there are inconsistencies in the Veteran's marital status, which affects eligibility for benefits. Additionally, a medical opinion is needed to determine if any of the listed conditions had onset during service or were otherwise caused by service.
- Claimed conditions
- adult failure to thrive, lung cancer, small cell (metastasized to brain), hepatitis C, alcoholic dementia
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 15, 2019
- Citation
- 19119296
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,030 · 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 19119296.
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 expanded the scope of the claim for major depression to encompass any mental health disability raised by the record and has remanded six issues for additional development.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the Veteran's claims for COPD, PTSD, hepatitis C, TDIU, and temporary total disability evaluation due to a failure to address his timely request for higher-level review of the July 2018 rating decision.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the claims for diabetes, gum disease, hypertension, orthopedic foot disorder, left shoulder disorder, right shoulder disorder, hepatitis C, skin disorder of the feet (claimed as trench foot), and an acquired psychiatric disorder (claimed as depression and anxiety) due to errors in duty to assist.
- Denied
The Veteran's cause of death, cardiorespiratory arrest and adult failure to thrive, is not service-connected as there is no evidence linking these conditions to his military service or exposure to herbicide agents. The Board finds that the medical evidence does not support a finding of service connection.
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