The Veteran's claim for service connection for a heart disability has been reopened due to new evidence. The case is remanded for further verification of herbicide exposure in Thailand and Vietnam, and for a VA examination or opinion regarding the relationship between any such exposure and the heart disability.
The deciding factor: New evidence was submitted that supports a theory of service connection based on presumptive herbicide agent exposure, but further investigation into the Veteran's specific service locations is needed to verify this claim.
- Claimed conditions
- Heart disability
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 9, 2020
- Citation
- 20072149
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,645 · Granted: 19% (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 20072149.
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 service connection for a heart disability, finding that the Veteran's current heart diagnoses are not related to his military service.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for an effective date prior to March 2, 2015, for TDIU was denied as the evidence did not show actual worsening within one year prior to his March 2, 2015, claim.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has denied service connection for a right shoulder disability and remanded the case for further action on heart disability. The decision regarding right shoulder disability is that it was not incurred in or aggravated by service.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's request to reopen his claim for service connection for a heart disability, claiming chest pains. The May 1997 rating decision found that new and material evidence was not submitted within the required timeframe.
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