The Veteran's right eye blindness is being remanded due to the need for a medical opinion regarding whether VA carelessness or negligence caused his condition.
The deciding factor: A medical opinion is needed to determine if VA carelessness, negligence, lack of proper skill, error in judgment, or similar instance of fault on VA’s part caused the Veteran's right eye blindness.
- Claimed conditions
- Right eye blindness, Uveitis glaucoma hyphema syndrome
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 18, 2019
- Citation
- 19179626
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,669 · 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 19179626.
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 granted an initial rating of 80 percent for bilateral primary open-angle glaucoma, severe stage, unspecified pterygium, and right eye blindness, and a 60 percent rating for GERD.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for entitlement to a disability rating in excess of 30 percent for right eye blindness, service connection for right eye blindness prior to January 13, 2014, and an effective date prior to January 13, 2014 for special monthly compensation (SMC) based on loss of use. The claims will be remanded for further review.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's right eye blindness was caused by carelessness, negligence, lack of proper skill on the part of the surgical resident during cataract surgery at a VA facility. The event was not reasonably foreseeable.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that additional development is needed to determine the cause of the Veteran's right eye blindness and whether it was caused by VA carelessness, negligence or similar instance of fault. The case will be remanded for further action.
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