The Board has remanded the claim for determining if the Veteran's causes of death are related to his military service and if his service-connected disabilities contributed to his death.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner found that the absence of the conditions from the Veteran’s service treatment records alone is not sufficient to conclude they were not related to his military service, and further evaluation is needed to determine their onset during service.
- Claimed conditions
- septic shock, aspiration pneumonia, chronic pleural effusions
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 4, 2019
- Citation
- 19183379
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the issue of entitlement to service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death due to a pre-decisional duty-to-assist error.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remanded the case to obtain a new medical opinion on whether the veteran's service-connected anxiety disorder aggravated his immune suppression or caused an inflammatory condition that led to his death.
- Denied
The Veteran's cause of death was not service-connected, as the evidence does not support a finding that his cardiorespiratory arrest, septic shock, renal failure and cirrhosis were related to his military service or specifically to Agent Orange exposure.
- Denied
The Board denied the Appellant's claim for service connection for cause of death, finding that there was no evidence to support a link between the Veteran's service or any service-connected conditions and his multi-organ failure, respiratory distress syndrome, septic shock, and renal failure.
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