The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient evidence regarding whether the Veteran's cause of death is related to his service, particularly asbestos exposure. The VA must obtain additional medical opinions and relevant treatment records.
The deciding factor: The VA needs a new opinion on whether the Veteran’s cause of death was related to his active service, including asbestos exposure.
- Claimed conditions
- Systemic Sclerosis, Acute Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure, Community-acquired Non-aspiration Pneumonia (presumed bacterial pneumonia), Acute Renal Failure, Lower Gastrointestinal Bleed
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 15, 2020
- Citation
- 20003358
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,677 · Granted: 26% (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 20003358.
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 case to obtain a medical opinion addressing whether the Veteran's service-connected PTSD caused or aggravated his cardiovascular diseases, which were listed as contributing causes of death.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for his cause of death, finding insufficient evidence to establish full-body exposure to mustard gas during service and no medical link between the Veteran's causes of death and mustard gas exposure.
- Denied
The Board has denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for hypertension, CVA, and acute renal failure as there is no credible evidence linking these conditions to his military service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case for a new VA examination to determine if the Veteran's death was caused by his service-connected conditions or due to other causes. The issues include determining whether ischemic heart disease, COPD, hepatocellular carcinoma, hypertension, and acute renal failure are related to service.
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