The Veteran's appeal is being remanded due to the need for additional medical opinions regarding his claims of additional heart disabilities caused by VA surgeries and aftercare. The AOJ must obtain updated treatment records, request private records, and seek an addendum opinion from a VA clinician.
The deciding factor: The decision was not clear on whether the Veteran's additional heart disabilities were foreseeable or avoidable risks of his surgeries and aftercare treatments.
- Claimed conditions
- atriial fibrillation, tear of the heart muscle, heart disability manifested in memory loss
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 16, 2020
- Citation
- 20003951
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,316 · Granted: 43% (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 20003951.
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 has remanded the issues of service connection for atrial fibrillation, benign prostatic hypertrophy with outflow obstruction, congestive heart failure, and hypertension due to inadequate VA opinions. The Veteran's exposure during service is conceded to include asbestos and gas chamber exposures.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to insufficient consideration of secondary service connection for coronary artery disease (CAD) related to the Veteran's service-connected foot disability and depression.
- Denied
The Veteran's claims for hypertension, CHF and ventricular arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation, diabetic peripheral neuropathy of the right lower extremity affecting the femoral nerve, and diabetic peripheral neuropathy of the left lower extremity affecting the femoral nerve were denied as there is no evidence that these conditions arose prior to July 31, 2024.,The effective dates for service connection for CHF and ventricular arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation, diabetic peripheral neuropathy of the right lower extremity affecting the femoral nerve, and diabetic peripheral neuropathy of the left lower extremity affecting the femoral nerve were denied as there is no evidence that these conditions arose prior to July 31, 2024.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to errors in obtaining relevant private treatment records and VA opinions, which were not sufficient for a decision on service connection.
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