The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and a skin disorder due to insufficient medical evidence. The VA will obtain new opinions regarding whether these conditions are related to service, including exposure to trichloroethylene.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner did not consider the continuity of symptoms since service and the Veteran's reported exposure to trichloroethylene during service when rendering their opinions.
- Claimed conditions
- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), skin disorder
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 14, 2019
- Citation
- 19185445
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,037 · Granted: 21% (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 19185445.
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
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- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claims of service connection for low back disorder, skin disorder, tongue condition, right chest costochondritis, and right hand shaking due to lack of evidence linking these conditions to his military service.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeal for a higher rating for right foot disability status post Mitchell's bunionectomy is granted with an effective date of July 25, 2023.,The Veteran's appeal for a higher rating for left foot disability status post Mitchell's bunionectomy is dismissed as it does not meet the criteria for an earlier effective date.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for asthma, COPD, pancreatitis, stroke, and left arm weakness (claimed as secondary to stroke) based on the presumption of exposure to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune. The evidence did not support a finding that these conditions were related to service or due to in-service exposure.
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