The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient information regarding the cause of the Veteran's death and potential service connection for asbestos exposure.
The deciding factor: The Board found that there is not enough evidence to determine if any of the Veteran’s causes of death are related to his active duty service or otherwise causally related to it, given the lack of clear medical nexus opinions.
- Claimed conditions
- acute respiratory failure, bilateral pneumonia, atrial fibrillation, superior vena cava syndrome, sepsis
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 14, 2019
- Citation
- 19137212
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 19137212.
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 Veteran's cause of death, kidney cancer, is not service-connected. The Board found that the Veteran's cause of death was not related to his military service or a service-connected disability.
- Granted
The Veteran's cause of death, metastatic lung cancer, was found to be related to service and caused or contributed substantially to the Veteran's death. The Board granted entitlement to service connection for the Veteran's cause of death.
- Granted
The Veteran's cause of death was determined to be related to service-connected conditions, specifically metastatic colon cancer and coronary artery disease. The Board granted the claim for service connection based on the evidence provided.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for atrial fibrillation and distressed heart (previously claimed as irregular heartbeat) based on evidence of a link to the Veteran's military service.
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