The Board remands the claims for service connection due to outstanding records of private treatment and a lack of VA medical opinions.
The deciding factor: The Veteran's claims were remanded due to pre-decisional duty to assist errors, including outstanding records and the need for VA medical opinions considering her contentions of toxic exposures.
- Claimed conditions
- allergic rhinitis, sinusitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), chronic headaches, right ankle disability, left ankle disability, right knee disability, left knee disability, lumbosacral strain, chronic pain syndrome (CPS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), gout, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), hypertension, diabetes mellitus type II, left lower extremity neuropathy, to include as secondary to diabetes mellitus, type II (DM II), right lower extremity neuropathy, to include as secondary to DM II
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 28, 2025
- Citation
- A25038517
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 785 · Granted: 27% (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 A25038517.
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 appeal is remanded for additional development, including a new VA examination to assess his bilateral knee and hip disabilities.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for service connection for hypertension and peripheral neuropathy of the bilateral upper and lower extremities due to insufficient medical opinions regarding their etiology.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's claim for an earlier effective date for diabetes mellitus type II with erectile dysfunction was denied as the evidence did not show that he had been diagnosed and manifested to at least a 10 percent disability rating on or prior to May 8, 2001.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has expanded the scope of the claim to include any mental health disorder raised by the record and has remanded for additional development regarding service connection for left leg, ankle, and psychiatric disabilities.
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