The Veteran's COPD is being remanded for further evaluation due to the need for an opinion on whether it was aggravated by his service-connected lung cancer or caused by herbicide exposure.
The deciding factor: Service connection may be established on a secondary basis if the current disability was proximately caused or aggravated by a service-connected disability, including when aggravation is shown beyond its natural progression.
- Claimed conditions
- COPD, chronic bronchitis, emphysema
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 17, 2019
- Citation
- 19147064
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.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for asthma and remanded claims for insomnia and sleep apnea. Other conditions were denied.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for COPD, finding that the evidence does not support a link between the Veteran's respiratory condition and his military service, including exposure to Agent Orange.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for various conditions and a TDIU, as the evidence did not support a finding that any of these disabilities were related to the Veteran's military service.
- Granted
The Veteran's COPD precluded him from obtaining and maintaining substantial gainful employment, warranting a Total Disability Rating Based on Individual Unemployability (TDIU).
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