The Board has reopened the claim for service connection for the cause of death due to scleroderma, but remanded for further development and opinion regarding whether the condition is related to herbicide exposure.
The deciding factor: The evidence received since the last denial includes a medical opinion linking scleroderma to herbicide agent exposure. The Board has ordered additional medical records and an expert opinion on the relationship between scleroderma and death.
- Claimed conditions
- scleroderma
- How they argued it
- Reopened with new and material evidence
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 22, 2019
- Citation
- 19188594
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 19188594.
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 an earlier effective date for the grant of a 70 percent rating for PTSD and granted an effective date of May 31, 2004, but no earlier, for the award of a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to service-connected disabilities (TDIU).
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for service connection for scleroderma to schedule a VA examination and address the Veteran's reported symptoms during active duty and periods of ACDUTRA.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for chronic kidney disease, skin condition, erectile dysfunction, hiatal hernia, hypertension, and scleroderma as the evidence did not indicate these conditions were due to the Veteran's time in service or any of his service-connected disabilities.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for scleroderma and Reynaud's disease, finding that both conditions are etiologically linked to the Veteran's active-duty service.
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