The Board has remanded the case for a VA medical opinion to address whether the Veteran's cause of death was related to service, including exposure to herbicide agents (Agent Orange), and whether it was due to VA negligence in diagnosing or treating his anal carcinoma.
The deciding factor: The need for an additional medical opinion is driven by the lack of adequate responses from previous opinions regarding the relationship between the Veteran's conditions and service, as well as the alleged failure of VA to timely diagnose and treat his anal carcinoma.
- Claimed conditions
- anal colloid carcinoma, deep vein thrombosis, Crohn's disease, cytopenia, cirrhosis
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 10, 2019
- Citation
- 19127640
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,987 · Granted: 15% (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 19127640.
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.
- Denied
The Board has determined that the Veteran's death was not caused by or substantially contributed to by any service-connected disability, and thus denied the claim for service connection for cause of death.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for iron deficiency anemia (IDA) as secondary to the Veteran's service-connected Crohn's disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and ileocecal valve scarring.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has dismissed the appeal for accrued benefits and has remanded the issue of service connection for cause of death, as there was a duty to assist error related to obtaining a medical nexus opinion regarding in-service herbicide agent exposure.
- Dismissed
The appeal has been dismissed due to the Veteran's death during the pendency of the appeal.
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