The Board has decided to remand the case due to incomplete medical records and insufficient opinions regarding herbicide exposure and HCC development. The appellant is asked to provide authorization for VA to obtain any outstanding medical records, including upper GI series and lab results of the Veteran's autopsy.
The deciding factor: Incomplete medical records and insufficient opinions regarding herbicide exposure and HCC development require further review by a VA examiner.
- Claimed conditions
- cause of death (hcc), epigastric pain
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 8, 2019
- Citation
- 19135742
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,287 · Granted: 23% (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 19135742.
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.
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The Veteran's epigastric pain, diagnosed as GERD, is at least as likely as not related to his active military service. The Board granted service connection for this condition.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for systolic heart murmur, degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine, metastatic disease of the spine, hypertension (HTN), hepatic lesions, mediastinal lymphadenopathy, epigastric pain, and reticuloendothelial disability as secondary to the Veteran's service-connected lung cancer. Hyperlipidemia was denied.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for payment or reimbursement of unauthorized medical expenses provided at Frick Hospital on May 1, 2020 was denied because the claim was filed outside of the 90-day timely filing limitation.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for a gastrointestinal disability manifested by epigastric pain, nausea, and vomiting, finding that it is caused by the Veteran's service-connected unspecified anxiety disorder.
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