The Veteran's cause of death is remanded due to insufficient medical opinion regarding the etiology of his conditions, including those listed on his death certificate. The VA must obtain a new medical opinion addressing whether these conditions are related to herbicide exposure during service.
The deciding factor: The initial opinion was found to be insufficient and speculative, thus requiring a new evaluation by a VA clinician.
- Claimed conditions
- malignant neoplasm of the skin, neoplasm of the kidney, Castleman disease, essential hypertension, benign prostatic hyperplasia
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 30, 2021
- Citation
- A21020674
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. Read the original VA decision (opens in a new tab) using citation A21020674.
What this means for you
A remand sends an issue back for more development, often a new examination or missing records. It does not award the benefit or decide the final outcome. The original decision explains the additional work ordered.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that additional development is needed for the claims on appeal, including obtaining any outstanding treatment records and scheduling VA examinations to assess the current severity of service-connected disabilities. The Veteran's representative also requested reevaluation of his service-connected disabilities.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for aortic aneurysm secondary to his service-connected hypertension, squamous cell cancer of the skin, and benign prostatic hyperplasia. The issues of entitlement to compensable ratings for hypertension and colon cancer residuals are also remanded due to potential impact on the issue of a 10 percent evaluation based on multiple noncompensable service-connected disabilities.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection for bilateral hearing loss, an acquired psychiatric disorder (including PTSD, a neurocognitive disorder, depression, and anxiety), benign prostatic hyperplasia, erectile dysfunction, neurogenic bladder, obstructive sleep apnea, and balance issues due to potential errors in the decision-making process.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for an earlier effective date for service connection of essential hypertension is denied as the evidence does not show he had potential entitlement at the time of the liberalizing law, and his current effective date is one year prior to the date of his July 2024 Supplemental Claim.
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