The Board remands the claim for a respiratory/lung disability to obtain additional evidence, including inpatient records from a German hospital and an adequate VA examination.
The deciding factor: The July 2020 VA examination and March 2021 opinion were found inadequate due to incomplete record review, conclusory rationale, and failure to consider the Veteran's statements.
- Claimed conditions
- shortness of breath, asthma, bronchitis, pneumothorax
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 16, 2025
- Citation
- A25052735
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 Veteran was granted a 70 percent disability rating for unspecified trauma and stressor-related disorder with major depressive disorder, recurrent, and alcohol use disorder in early remission, as well as TDIU due to asthma and SMC at the housebound rate.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for asthma and remanded claims for insomnia and sleep apnea. Other conditions were denied.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for various conditions, including sinusitis, elbows condition, cervical condition, erectile dysfunction, kidney condition, sleep apnea, wrists condition, asthma, shoulders condition, ankles condition, eye condition (bilateral dry macular degeneration), peripheral vascular disease (heart condition), and rhinitis.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's request for an earlier effective date for service connection for asthma, as he did not file a claim or intent to file a claim within one year of his separation from service.
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