The Board has remanded the case due to a lack of medical opinion regarding whether the Veteran required aid and attendance due to his service-connected disabilities, specifically diabetes mellitus. The appellant's claim for SMC based on aid and attendance as an accrued benefit is being remanded.
The deciding factor: A medical opinion is needed to determine if the Veteran’s service-connected disabilities caused or aggravated his need for regular aid and attendance.
- Claimed conditions
- Cerebrovascular accident (CVA), Diabetes mellitus, Right ankle disability, Left buttock and back disability, Spine disability, Chest disability, Left arm disability, Left lower extremity disability, Face disability, Left shoulder disability, Left hip disability, Left knee disability, Right lower extremity disability, Scars, Cardiopulmonary arrest
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- August 30, 2019
- Citation
- 19167529
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,874 · Granted: 33% (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 19167529.
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 Veteran's claim for an earlier effective date of January 10, 1997, for a 10% disability rating for his right ankle disability is denied as there was no CUE in the previous decisions.
- Granted
The Veteran's TDIU claim for bilateral knee disabilities and his right and left knee scars have been granted. He is now rated at a combined 60% disability rating from June 1, 2018 based on bilateral factors for his bilateral knee disabilities.
- Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's claim for payment or reimbursement of ambulance travel expenses incurred on June 17, 2025 due to an emergency heart attack. The ambulance service was provided by a volunteer organization and later intercepted by a higher-tier EMT company.
- Dismissed
The Veteran withdrew the claims for psychiatric disability and sleep apnea.,Service connection was granted for right lower extremity radiculopathy and left lower extremity radiculopathy secondary to a service-connected back disability, but denied for right wrist disability.
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