The Board has determined that additional medical examinations and opinions are needed to properly adjudicate the Veteran's claims for service connection due to the complexity of his conditions and the need to consider various statements from the Veteran and those who served with him.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner did not adequately address the Veteran’s contentions regarding in-service injuries, symptoms, and ongoing disabilities.
- Claimed conditions
- Cervical spine disability, including DJD, Thoracolumbar spine disability, including total body arthritis and fibromyalgia, Right hand disability, including DJD, Right elbow disability, including DJD, Right shoulder disability, including DJD, Left shoulder disability, including DJD, Right hip disability, including DJD, Left hip disability, including DJD, Hypertension, Cardiac muscle damage, including disordered electrical condition of the cardiac muscle due to trichlorethylene (TCE) exposure
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 29, 2020
- Citation
- 20007470
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 the Veteran's appeal for increased ratings for right and left shoulder disabilities, as the evidence did not support a higher rating under applicable criteria.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection for diabetes mellitus type II and hypertension, to include as secondary to left orchiectomy, for further development in accordance with the PACT Act.
- Partly granted
The Board granted readjudication of previously denied claims for service connection for PTSD and COPD, while remanding other issues including entitlement to service connection for an eye disorder, hypertension, tinnitus, a compensable rating for bilateral hearing loss, TDIU, and an initial rating for PTSD.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for various disabilities and denied higher ratings for several service-connected conditions.
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