The Board has decided that additional action is required to determine D.D.W.'s eligibility for burial in a VA national cemetery due to his mental disability before reaching age 21. The appellant needs to provide authorization for VA to obtain any relevant private medical records.
The deciding factor: The claim requires obtaining additional evidence, specifically from SSA and private sources, regarding D.D.W.'s mental disability before he reached age 21.
- Claimed conditions
- mental disability
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 13, 2019
- Citation
- 19146416
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.
- Dismissed
The Veteran withdrew his appeals for higher ratings of 70 percent and 10 percent for the service-connected mental disability and hypertension, respectively. As a result, the Board dismissed these claims.
- Partly granted
The claim for service connection for a left ear disability is reopened, but the merits of the claim are remanded.
- Denied
The Board has determined that A.A.L., the veteran's son, is not a helpless child due to lack of evidence showing he was permanently incapable of self-support by age 18.
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