The Board has decided that there is insufficient evidence to determine if the Veteran's death was caused by service-connected conditions, and thus remanded for further development. The case will be reviewed again with a focus on verifying any potential exposure to herbicides in service and obtaining medical opinions regarding the cause of the Veteran's pulmonary embolism.
The deciding factor: The Board found that there is insufficient evidence to determine if the Veteran's death was caused by service-connected conditions, necessitating further development to verify any potential exposure to herbicides in service and obtain medical opinions on the etiology of the Veteran's pulmonary embolism.
- Claimed conditions
- Pulmonary Embolism, Schizoid-affective disorder
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 18, 2020
- Citation
- 20079959
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,435 · Granted: 22% (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 20079959.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claim for an earlier effective date for the grant of service connection for Persistent Depressive Disorder is denied. The Board has also remanded the issue of service connection for Pulmonary Embolism due to predecisional duty to assist errors.
- Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's claim for service connection for residuals of pulmonary embolism, finding that it is secondary to her service-connected PCOS.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's pulmonary embolism is secondary to his service-connected heart disability and grants service connection for this condition.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board dismissed the Veteran's claim for a compensable rating for pulmonary embolism, but the Veteran has since expressed that she did not intend to withdraw her claim. The case is now remanded for further review.
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