The Board remands the claim for service connection for kidney disability to obtain further medical evidence regarding whether the Veteran's pre-existing condition was aggravated by her active service.
The deciding factor: Further medical guidance is needed as the examiner based the medical opinion on the lack of evidence of permanent aggravation, when the appropriate standard for aggravation in this case is any increase/worsening of the pre-existing condition is sufficient.
- Claimed conditions
- kidney disability
- How they argued it
- Aggravation of a pre-existing condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- July 7, 2025
- Citation
- A25057977
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 713 · Granted: 31% (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 A25057977.
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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