The Board cannot make a fully-informed decision on the issues of service connection for residuals of acute pancreatitis and renal disorder because no VA examiner has provided an opinion regarding whether these conditions are directly related to service, including exposure to oil field fires while serving in Southeast Asia. The remand is necessary to obtain further medical opinions.
The deciding factor: The Board cannot make a fully-informed decision without additional medical opinions on the etiology of the Veteran's acute pancreatitis residuals and renal disorder.
- Claimed conditions
- residuals of acute pancreatitis, renal disorder
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 24, 2019
- Citation
- 19132169
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,836 · Granted: 31% (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 19132169.
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 denied service connection for diabetes mellitus and renal disorder to include as secondary to diabetes mellitus, finding that the Veteran's current disabilities did not have their onset in service or are otherwise related to his military service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claims for service connection and increased ratings are being remanded due to the need for additional development, including examinations and opinions regarding his renal disorder, erectile dysfunction, lumbar spine disability, right lower extremity radiculopathy, TDIU, and SMC.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's petition to reopen his service connection claim for a renal disorder, finding that new and material evidence was not received. The Veteran had no current diagnosis of a chronic renal condition during or after military service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the cases for further development, including obtaining SSA records and any relevant private or VA treatment records.
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