The Board has determined that the current rating decision is not definitive on the issue of service connection for an infectious disease, and thus remanded to obtain additional medical opinions.
The deciding factor: The April 2020 examiner did not consider all possible causes of the Veteran's infectious disease, including herbicide agent exposure, and failed to provide a rationale for excluding other potential causes.
- Claimed conditions
- infectious disease, actinomycosis, left supraorbital zoster infection, neutropenia
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 19, 2020
- Citation
- 20074310
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.
- Dismissed
The Board dismissed the appeal due to an improper concurrent election of review options.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for neutropenia and nodular scleritis, resolving reasonable doubts in the Veteran's favor. The claim for autoimmune disease was remanded due to a pre-decisional error.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for a hematological condition, including anemia and neutropenia, finding that there was no evidence to support a direct relationship between his current conditions and his military service.
- Denied
The Board denied retroactive benefits under Nehmer and the revision of the January 2008 rating decision on CUE, as the requirements for both were not met. The effective date for service connection for cause of death was also denied.
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