The Board has remanded the cases for further development and opinion regarding service connection for gastrointestinal disability and herniated disc in the low back, including consideration of herbicide exposure.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner is asked to provide an opinion on whether the Veteran's gastrointestinal disability and lumbar disability are related to military service, with particular attention given to the possibility of a relationship due to herbicide exposure.
- Claimed conditions
- Gastrointestinal disability, Herniated disc in the low back
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- Burn pits / airborne hazards
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 17, 2019
- Citation
- 19130161
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,569 · 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 19130161.
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 decided to remand the case due to errors in the duty to assist and insufficient opinions regarding service connection for a gastrointestinal disability. The Veteran's symptoms include epigastric burning, regurgitation, nausea without vomiting, persistently recurrent epigastric distress, reflux, substernal pain, sleep disturbance caused by esophageal reflux, diarrhea, dysphagia, Barrett's esophagus, and esophagitis.
- Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's claim for service connection for a gastrointestinal disability, finding that his current condition is at least as likely as not related to his active military service.
- Denied
The Veteran's appeal for a higher rating for major depressive disorder was denied, and service connection claims for respiratory and gastrointestinal disabilities were also denied.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for a sinus disability as there was no persuasive evidence that it began during service or is otherwise related to an in-service injury or disease.
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