The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient evidence regarding the relationship between the Veteran's exposure to chemicals at Fort McClellan and his cause of death. The examiner is asked to determine if it is at least as likely as not that the cause of death is related to military service, including chemical exposure.
The deciding factor: The Board cannot make a fully-informed decision on the claim due to insufficient evidence regarding the relationship between chemical exposure and the cause of death.
- Claimed conditions
- septic shock, immunosuppression
- How they argued it
- Aggravation of a pre-existing condition
- Exposure basis
- Burn pits / airborne hazards
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 20, 2019
- Citation
- 19187543
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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