The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient evidence regarding the Veteran's exposure to herbicide agents and the onset of his conditions during service. The Appellant is seeking service connection for her husband's cause of death, which includes ankylosing spondylitis and pulmonary fibrosis.
The deciding factor: Further medical evaluation is needed to determine if the Veteran's conditions are related to his service, including exposure to herbicide agents in Vietnam and environmental exposures during service in Southwest Asia.
- Claimed conditions
- ankylosing spondylitis, pulmonary fibrosis
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- August 23, 2019
- Citation
- 19165782
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 880 · Granted: 26% (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 19165782.
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.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for pulmonary fibrosis as there is no evidence of a current diagnosis.
- Granted
The Veteran's pulmonary fibrosis is related to in-service exposure to herbicide agents, and the Board has granted service connection for this condition.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to duty-to-assist errors, including obtaining signed consent forms and an adequate medical opinion regarding the Veteran's lung complications.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for a respiratory disorder, including interstitial lung disease, pulmonary fibrosis, asthma, and pulmonary asbestosis, due to in-service asbestos exposure.
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