The Board has remanded the claims for service connection due to missing portions of the Veteran's claims file and unclear information regarding his exposure to herbicide agents. The location of the Veteran’s ship while stationed is also needed, as are addendum opinions on the relationship between the Veteran's injuries and his disabilities.
The deciding factor: The Board cannot make a fully-informed decision without knowing the location of the Veteran's ship and additional information regarding his exposure to herbicide agents. The addendum opinion is required to address whether the Veteran’s injuries were related to his in-service assault based on an MRI indicating older injuries at the time of diagnosis.
- Claimed conditions
- left acoustic neuroma, glaucoma of the left eye, squamous cell carcinoma, bilateral shoulder disability, disability manifested by bilateral muscle damage, diagnosed as trapezius strains
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 4, 2019
- Citation
- 19176821
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.
- Partly granted
The Board denied service connection for Parkinson's disease, emphysema, muscle cramps, bilateral shoulder disability, and neck disability. However, it granted service connection for peripheral vascular disease and asthma.
- Partly granted
The appeal for service connection for skin cancer was dismissed due to untimeliness, while the claim for squamous cell carcinoma was granted.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for multiple disabilities, including bilateral wrist, ankle, foot, shoulder, allergic rhinitis, sinusitis, lumbosacral spine, and carpal tunnel syndrome, as the evidence did not support a finding that these conditions were related to active service.
- Partly granted
The Board dismissed the claim for service connection for headaches and remanded claims for service connection for various other conditions, including open angle glaucoma, sensorineural hearing loss, asthma, heart disease, bladder cancer, and squamous cell carcinoma.
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