The Board has remanded the cases due to insufficient medical opinions regarding the Veteran's respiratory disabilities and coronary artery disease. The VA will seek additional private records, arrange for a new VA examination, and provide further analysis.
The deciding factor: The VA needs to obtain updated medical evidence and conduct a thorough review of the Veteran's claims based on his exposure to asbestos during service.
- Claimed conditions
- Interstitial lung disease, Asbestosis, Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, Emphysema
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- July 3, 2019
- Citation
- 19151856
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,549 · Granted: 29% (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 19151856.
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.
- Granted
The Veteran was granted a TDIU with a September 19, 2024 effective date based on his PTSD, emphysema, and COPD symptoms. His diabetes, tinnitus, and left ear hearing loss were not found to prevent him from securing or following a substantially gainful occupation prior to March 19, 2024.
- Granted
The Veteran's TBI alone rendered him unable to secure or follow a substantially gainful occupation, and he is eligible for SMC at the housebound rate due to his single total disability rating with additional disabilities rated at least 60 percent.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's COPD is etiologically related to service exposure to herbicide agents, and thus grants service connection for COPD.
- Denied
The Veteran's cause of death was listed as emphysema, but the Board found no causal connection to service or a service-connected disability. The Veteran did not meet the criteria for DIC benefits under 38 U.S.C. § 1318.
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