The Board remands the claims for service connection for a heart disability and diabetes mellitus type 2 to verify the Veteran's asserted in-service exposure to herbicide agents.
The deciding factor: The Board failed to ensure VA satisfied its duty to assist by not referring the matter to the MRRC to assess the Veteran's claimed exposure.
- Claimed conditions
- heart disability (claimed as ischemic heart disease congestive heart failure), diabetes mellitus type 2
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 15, 2025
- Citation
- A25044038
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.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for diabetes mellitus type 2 and diabetic nephropathy (renal failure) as secondary to the Veteran's now service-connected hypertension and diabetes mellitus type 2, respectively.
- Dismissed
The appeal for entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability (TDIU) is dismissed as moot due to the Veteran's 100 percent combined rating assigned for his service-connected disabilities.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for higher ratings and earlier effective dates, except for an earlier effective date for service connection of lower extremity peripheral neuropathy.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board is remanding the claim for service connection of the Veteran's cause of death due to a predecisional duty to assist error in not obtaining relevant medical records from the state veteran's home.
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