The Board has found that there were pre-decisional duty to assist errors and a remand is required due to the inadequate medical opinion provided in the November 2019 VA examination.
The deciding factor: The examiner did not provide a rationale as to why the Veteran's left eye melanoma is not related to his active military service, other than the reported right eye injury being to the opposite eye. The Board finds this opinion inadequate and requires an addendum opinion from an appropriate clinician regarding whether the Veteran’s left eye disorder is at least as likely as not related to his active service.
- Claimed conditions
- left eye condition, melanoma in left eye, cystoid macular edema in left eye
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 7, 2020
- Citation
- A20018108
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,011 · Granted: 24% (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 A20018108.
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.
- Granted
The Veteran's headaches, head scars, left eye condition, and right eye condition are all found to be secondary to his service-connected traumatic brain injury (TBI). Service connection is granted for these conditions.
- Dismissed
The claim of CUE in the February 2020 rating decision regarding service connection for various conditions is dismissed as it was subsumed by a subsequent March 2021 Board decision.
- Dismissed
The Veteran withdrew his appeals regarding the service connection for lumbosacral strain, left and right knee conditions, and left and right eye conditions in May 2024.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to insufficient evidence regarding whether the appellant's left eye condition is related to his service. The VA will need to obtain additional medical opinions and consider relevant service treatment records.
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