The Board has determined that the right lung mass biopsy performed by VA on November 12, 2014, with its subsequent complications of pneumothorax, hypoxemia, bradycardia, chest tube insertion, and arterial puncture, proximately caused the Veteran's death in June 2015. The Board has also determined that failure by VA to offer/schedule radiation treatment on or around April 2015, when the non-small cell lung carcinoma was first diagnosed, or at any time prior to June 2015, proximately caused the continuance or natural progress of the Veteran's lung cancer. The Board has therefore remanded for further medical opinions.
The deciding factor: The right lung mass biopsy performed by VA on November 12, 2014, with its subsequent complications, and failure to timely diagnose and properly treat non-small cell lung carcinoma with radiation treatment proximately caused the Veteran's death in June 2015.
- Claimed conditions
- carcinoma of the lung
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating
- Not verified here — check the original decision
- Decision date
- January 15, 2020
- Citation
- 20003084
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,421 · Granted: 29% (granted or partly granted, in the indexed 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. Read the original VA decision (opens in a new tab) using citation 20003084.
What this means for you
A remand sends an issue back for more development, often a new examination or missing records. It does not award the benefit or decide the final outcome. The original decision explains the additional work ordered.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Veteran's death was not due to a service-connected disability, and the Board denied entitlement to service connection for the cause of his death.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran is requesting that the AOJ adjudicate whether revision of a March 2006 rating decision which awarded a 100 percent disability rating for carcinoma of the liver and carcinoma of the lung, resulting in the continuation of SMC (L) for aid and attendance, is warranted due to clear and unmistakable error. The Board finds this constitutes pre-decisional error and remands the matter.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to a need for additional medical opinions regarding the Veteran's lung cancer and death, specifically related to his exposure at Camp Lejeune.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for a higher disability rating for his service-connected carcinoma of the lung with post-operative right upper lobectomy and COPD was denied as his FEV-1/FVC readings were not less than 55 percent, which is required for a higher rating.
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