The Board has remanded the case due to new evidence submitted by the Appellant, and a VA examination is needed to determine if the Veteran's service-connected disabilities contributed to her cause of death.
The deciding factor: The examiner will need to review the findings from the VA investigation into potentially misdiagnosed pathology tests and provide an opinion on whether these contributed substantially or materially to the Veteran's cause of death.
- Claimed conditions
- metastatic colorectal cancer, natural cardiorespiratory failure, septic shock with multi-organ dysfunction, urinary tract infection
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 10, 2019
- Citation
- 19127927
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,776 · Granted: 24% (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 19127927.
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 remanded the issues of service connection for extreme fatigue, difficulty breathing, sepsis, and urinary tract infection due to incomplete records and a need for additional medical opinions.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to an inadequate medical opinion, and a new one must be provided.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for the cause of death, finding that there is no evidence to support a causal relationship between the Veteran's military service or VA treatment and his death.,The Board also denied DIC under 38 U.S.C. § 1151 and DIC under 38 U.S.C. § 1318, as there was no evidence of fault on the part of VA in the care provided to the Veteran.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection for metastatic colorectal cancer and lung cancer due to deficiencies in the AOJ's duty-to-assist, including failure to obtain complete service treatment records and an adequate VA medical opinion.
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