The Board has determined that an effective date prior to August 31, 2010 for the grant of service connection for the cause of the Veteran’s death is remanded due to insufficient evidence regarding the relationship between his atherosclerotic heart disease and his in-service exposure to toxic herbicide agents.
The deciding factor: The Board requires an opinion on whether there is a nexus between the Veteran's active duty service, including his conceded exposure to toxic herbicide agents, and his cause of death (atherosclerotic heart disease).
- Claimed conditions
- atherosclerotic heart disease
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- August 27, 2019
- Citation
- 19166544
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,948 · 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 19166544.
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 Board has granted DIC benefits based on service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, finding that his service-connected prostate cancer and its treatment caused his death due to side effects from Zytiga.
- Denied
The Veteran's death due to cardiac arrest and atherosclerotic heart disease was not related or attributable to his military service, thus denying the claim for service connection for cause of death.
- Denied
The Veteran's service connection claims for hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and atherosclerotic heart disease are denied. The Board has remanded the issues of service connection for hypertension and atherosclerotic heart disease due to insufficient medical opinions.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeals for increased ratings for intrahepatic bile duct carcinoma and gallbladder, service connection for atherosclerotic heart disease, and service connection for fatigue have been dismissed due to the Veteran's withdrawal of his appeal.
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