The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient medical opinions regarding whether the Veteran's cardiac disability and cause of death are related to his service. The VA must obtain additional medical opinions on these issues.
The deciding factor: Insufficient medical evidence is available to determine if the Veteran’s cardiac disability and cause of death are related to his service.
- Claimed conditions
- Arterial fibrillation, Severe peripheral vascular disease, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Right middle cerebral artery stroke
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 15, 2019
- Citation
- 19129197
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,820 · Granted: 26% (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 19129197.
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 Veteran's death was caused by acute hypoxic respiratory failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, with hypertension as a significant contributing factor. The Board finds that remand is necessary to obtain the Veteran's complete military records and treatment records.
- Dismissed
Your appeal for service connection of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease has been dismissed due to the Veteran's death. The Board cannot issue a decision on this claim as it is no longer pending.
- Denied
The Board denied the claim for service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, as none of the listed causes were related to his period of active duty or presumed exposure to herbicides.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for multiple disabilities, including thoracolumbar spine disability, bilateral knee and hip disabilities, heart disease, erectile dysfunction, COPD, and denied an initial rating higher than 50 percent for MDD with GAD.
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