The Veteran's claim for earlier effective date of August 8, 2002 for the award of service connection for ischemic heart disease associated with herbicide exposure is granted. The Board also remanded the issue of service connection for an acquired psychiatric disability (including PTSD, depression, alcoholism).
The deciding factor: The Veteran was a Nehmer class member who filed a claim for service connection for ischemic heart disease in August 2002 and received a denial in November 2002. The effective date of the award is set at August 8, 2002 based on the liberalizing law and regulations.
- Claimed conditions
- Ischemic heart disease, Acquired psychiatric disability (including PTSD, depression, alcoholism)
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- August 13, 2019
- Citation
- 19162237
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,762 · Granted: 24% (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 19162237.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claim for an initial rating of 30 percent prior to July 18, 2014, and a higher than 60 percent rating thereafter for ischemic heart disease is being remanded due to incomplete evidence. The examiner needs to provide more detailed information about the severity of his service-connected condition.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for an earlier effective date and increased rating for ischemic heart disease due to a failure by the AOJ to request SSA records, which were not available.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for ischemic heart disease and myocardial infarction, status post stent placement, as well as obstructive sleep apnea, finding that the Veteran's current conditions are related to his military service.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for ischemic heart disease as there was no evidence of herbicide exposure and the Veteran's condition is not related to his military service.
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