The Veteran's kidney disability is being remanded for a new VA examination to determine if it is related to his service, including herbicide exposure. The examiner should also assess whether the disability is secondary to his service-connected heart condition.,The Veteran's liver disability is being remanded for a new VA examination to determine if it is related to his service, including herbicide exposure. The examiner should also assess whether the disability is secondary to his service-connected heart condition.,The Veteran's pituitary gland disability is being remanded for a new VA examination to determine if it is related to his service, including herbicide exposure. The examiner should also assess whether the disability is secondary to his service-connected heart condition.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner did not consider the Veteran’s herbicide exposure in their opinions regarding his kidney disability, liver disability, or pituitary gland disability.,VA examiners failed to address whether the Veteran's liver disability is secondary to his service-connected heart condition.,VA examiners did not consider the Veteran’s herbicide exposure when assessing his pituitary gland disability.
- Claimed conditions
- kidney disability, liver disability, pituitary gland disability
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- September 26, 2023
- Citation
- 23053510
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 23053510.
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 Board has granted service connection for kidney disability and urinary incontinence with hematuria. The remaining issues of service connection for psychiatric disability, migraine headaches, and macrocytic anemia are remanded for further consideration.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection due to insufficient medical opinions and potential duty-to-assist errors. The Veteran is seeking service connection for migraine headaches, which he contends are secondary to his service-connected tinnitus, diabetes mellitus, and asthma. He also seeks service connection for a kidney disability manifested by kidney stones and a weak right kidney, which he asserts is related to his service-connected diabetes mellitus.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to inadequate opinions regarding secondary service connection for kidney cancer, specifically whether it is aggravated by service-connected hypertension and diabetes. The Veteran's claim will be reconsidered with new medical opinions addressing this issue.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to a duty-to-assist error related to VA's statutory duties under the PACT Act. The Veteran had presumptive exposure to herbicide agents, but there is no medical opinion on whether his kidney disability was related to any toxic exposure risk activity (TERA).
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