The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims of service connection for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and coronary artery disease due to inadequate opinions provided in previous VA examinations. The Veteran asserts that his conditions are related to herbicide exposure during service, but the July 2021 opinion is based on an inaccurate factual premise regarding Agent Orange exposure.
The deciding factor: The Board found the July 2021 opinion to be inadequate due to its reliance on an inaccurate factual premise and remanded for additional opinions addressing the Veteran's asserted herbicide exposure during service.
- Claimed conditions
- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary artery disease
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 11, 2023
- Citation
- 23001795
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,432 · Granted: 29% (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 23001795.
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 the Veteran's claim for an initial evaluation in excess of 10 percent for his service-connected coronary artery disease, finding that the evidence did not support a higher rating based on the severity of his condition.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claim for an increased rating for coronary artery disease is being remanded due to the inadequacy of a previous VA examination.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for coronary artery disease, hypertension, and stroke as there was no evidence of herbicide agent exposure during service and the medical opinions were against a nexus to service.
- Granted
The Veteran's service connection claim for coronary artery disease with myocardial infarction is granted on a presumptive basis due to exposure to herbicide agents during his active duty in Korea.
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