The Veteran's blindness in both eyes is being remanded for a supplemental opinion to determine if the condition resulted from carelessness, negligence, or error on the part of VA.
The deciding factor: The Board found that the July 2018 opinion was insufficient and requires a new opinion to address the issues raised by the Veteran's claim.
- Claimed conditions
- blindness in both eyes
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 31, 2020
- Citation
- 20008254
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,077 · Granted: 25% (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 20008254.
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 Veteran's service-connected disabilities do not meet the criteria for financial assistance for specially adapted housing or special home adaptation due to lack of loss of use of extremities, blindness, or burns.
- Partly granted
The Board granted entitlement to Special Monthly Compensation (SMC) based on blindness in both eyes and remanded the issue of service connection for sarcoidosis due to a pre-decisional duty-to-assist error.
- Denied
The Board denied compensation under the provisions of 38 U.S.C. § 1151 for additional disabilities resulting from treatment at a VA facility, finding that there was no evidence of additional disability proximately caused by carelessness, negligence, lack of proper skill, error in judgment, or similar instance of fault on the part of VA.
- Denied
The Veteran's service-connected disabilities do not meet the criteria for eligibility for specially adapted housing (SAH) or special home adaptation (SHA) grants due to lack of a permanent and total service-connected disability involving both lower extremities that causes loss of use without regular and constant use of assistive devices.
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