The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient evidence regarding the cause of the Veteran's death and whether his service-connected PTSD caused or aggravated his liver failure.
The deciding factor: An updated medical opinion is needed to determine if the Veteran’s hepatitis C and other causes of death are related to his military service, including presumed herbicide exposure in Vietnam.
- Claimed conditions
- Acute renal failure, Hepatorenal syndrome, Decompensated cirrhosis due to hepatitis C, Hepatocellular carcinoma, Hepatic encephalopathy, Moderate protein calorie nutrition
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- Gulf War
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- August 15, 2019
- Citation
- 19163186
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,456 · Granted: 23% (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 19163186.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to a failure to obtain an adequate opinion regarding the cause of death and its relation to service, including in-service dental treatment. The Veteran died from acute renal failure, metastatic melanoma, cerebral metastasis, or seizure disorder.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that there are duty to assist errors in the current decision and remands the case for further development, including obtaining an ILER and a medical opinion regarding the etiology of the Veteran's cause of death.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has found that the Veteran's death was caused by an intraabdominal hemorrhage, acute myocardial infarction, and acute renal failure. The appeal is remanded to obtain a medical opinion on whether these conditions are related to in-service exposure to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for cause of death due to a lack of credible evidence linking the Veteran's cancer, which caused his death, to toxic exposure at Fort McClellan during service. The Board concluded that there was no causal link between the claimed exposure and the Veteran's condition.
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