The Board has decided to remand the case due to insufficient evidence regarding the cause of death and exposure to asbestos during service.
The deciding factor: The VA medical expert is needed to provide an opinion on whether any conditions that contributed to the Veteran's death were caused by his active duty service, including exposure to asbestos.
- Claimed conditions
- Acute respiratory failure, Pleural effusion, Metastatic lung cancer
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- Burn pits / airborne hazards
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 19, 2020
- Citation
- 20080122
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,548 · Granted: 31% (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 20080122.
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 has determined that the Veteran's death was not caused by any service-connected disability, and thus denied his claim for service connection for cause of death.
- Denied
The Board has denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for cause of death due to acute respiratory failure and subdural hematoma, finding that no service-connected disability contributed substantially or materially to his death. The Veteran served in Vietnam but there is no evidence of a service-connected condition related to Agent Orange exposure.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that the Veteran's cause of death (acute respiratory failure, atrial fibrillation, and/or hypertension) is related to his active duty service, including from exposure to toxins and chemicals from open burn pits during the harsh winters in Korea. The Board finds a pre-decisional duty to assist error and remands for obtaining a VA medical opinion.
- Denied
The Veteran's cause of death was due to acute respiratory failure, with pulmonary edema, acute renal failure, renal cell cancer, and coronary artery disease as contributing causes. The VA examiner found that the asbestos exposure did not contribute to these conditions.
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