The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection for a psychiatric disorder, glaucoma, and SMC due to the need for regular aid and attendance or being housebound as a result of service-connected disabilities. The claims are remanded for additional medical opinions regarding the relationship between the Veteran's current conditions and his service-connected disabilities.
The deciding factor: The Court found that the Board failed to ensure substantial compliance with its March 2018 remand instructions, particularly regarding the need for clarification on whether in-service eye issues could have led to the development of glaucoma and whether the Veteran’s dementia alone restricts his activities of daily living.
- Claimed conditions
- Glaucoma, Psychiatric Disorder (including PTSD and unspecified neurocognitive disorder)
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 20, 2020
- Citation
- 20067784
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,911 · Granted: 10% (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 20067784.
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 service-connected glaucoma has rendered him unable to secure or follow substantially gainful employment on an extra-schedular basis, effective September 1, 2020.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claim of entitlement to compensation benefits under 38 U.S.C. § 1151 for glaucoma due to inadequate development and reasoning in the previous decision.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for a 100 percent rating for glaucoma prior to January 27, 2023 was denied as there is no medical evidence showing he had visual acuity of less than 5/200 or a reduced visual field to 5 degrees in both eyes prior to that date.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for PTSD, sleep disturbances, anxiety, hypothyroidism, glaucoma, and hypertension. The Veteran's claims were not supported by the evidence of record.
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