The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient evidence regarding the etiology of the Veteran's respiratory problems, specifically COPD and congestive heart failure.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner needs to revisit his opinion with respect to the onset and causation of the Veteran’s COPD and congestive heart failure in service.
- Claimed conditions
- respiratory problems, shortness of breath/lung problems
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 15, 2019
- Citation
- 19119341
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,757 · 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 19119341.
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.
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The Board has found that the Veteran does not have a current respiratory disability other than sleep apnea. The claims for abdominal pain, type I diabetes, peripheral neuropathy of the upper and lower extremities, and an immune disorder are remanded due to a duty to assist error.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection due to a pre-decisional duty to assist error, as it is unclear whether the Veteran's claimed conditions are due to any incident of his period of active service.
- Dismissed
The appeal was dismissed due to a claims-processing defect, as the August 2021 rating decision did not adjudicate the Veteran's claims on the merits.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the Veteran's claims for service connection due to incomplete development of her exposure history and potential presumptive service connection based on herbicide agent exposure. The claims will be returned to the RO for further development.
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