The Board has determined that additional development is needed to determine if the Veteran's death was caused by exposure to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, and whether any underlying conditions are related to his service. The case will be remanded for further medical opinions.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner’s opinion regarding the cause of the Veteran’s death is inadequate and requires additional development with a new medical opinion.
- Claimed conditions
- cardiac arrest, end-stage renal disease
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- Camp Lejeune water
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 7, 2020
- Citation
- 20001289
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,050 · Granted: 32% (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 20001289.
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
The Board denied service connection for the cause of death due to lack of evidence showing a link between any service-connected disability and the Veteran's death. The conditions listed on his death certificate were not related to his military service.
- Denied
The Veteran's death due to cardiac arrest and atherosclerotic heart disease was not related or attributable to his military service, thus denying the claim for service connection for cause of death.
- Granted
The Veteran's ambulance expenses for fainting on March 22, 2022 and cardiac arrest on September 6, 2022 are granted.,VA facilities were not feasibly available during the medical emergencies.
- Granted
The Veteran's cause of death, including hypertension and diabetes mellitus type II, are presumed to be related to his service in the Republic of Vietnam. The Board has granted service connection for these conditions.
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