The Board remands the claim for a medical opinion under the PACT Act regarding the Veteran's kidney disorder and its potential relation to his service at Camp Lejeune, as well as an opinion on whether the Veteran's service-connected hepatocellular carcinoma with hepatectomy has aggravated his kidney disorder.
The deciding factor: The remand is necessary due to recent changes in law requiring a TERA opinion under the PACT Act and to cure pre-decisional duty to assist errors regarding secondary service connection for aggravation.
- Claimed conditions
- cystic kidney disease, chronic renal disease, renal mass
- How they argued it
- Reopened with new and material evidence
- Exposure basis
- Camp Lejeune water
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 15, 2025
- Citation
- A25043851
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,886 · Granted: 24% (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 A25043851.
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 remanded the case due to inconsistencies in the evidence regarding the presence and nature of current chronic kidney disability, its relationship to service, and whether there are additional residuals beyond those already service-connected. The Veteran is seeking service connection for a kidney disability that is not already covered by his existing service-connected conditions.
- Granted
The Veteran was granted a TDIU effective November 10, 2014 due to service-connected PTSD and chronic renal disease preventing him from maintaining substantially gainful employment.
- Granted
The Veteran's hypertension is granted service connection under the PACT Act, and his cystic kidney disease is granted as secondary to his service-connected hypertension.
- Denied
The Board has determined that the Veteran's cause of death was not caused by or related to any disease or injury in service, and thus denied the claim for service connection for cause of death.
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