The Board remands the claim for a new medical opinion to determine if the Veteran's chronic systolic congestive heart failure was caused or aggravated by his service-connected anxiety with depression.
The deciding factor: The previous VA medical opinion did not address whether the Veteran's congestive heart failure was aggravated by his service-connected anxiety with depression, as required by Allen v. Brown, 7 Vet. App. 439 (1995).
- Claimed conditions
- Chronic systolic congestive heart failure
- How they argued it
- Aggravation of a pre-existing condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 28, 2025
- Citation
- A25093177
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 878 · Granted: 36% (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 A25093177.
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.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for the Veteran's cause of death and entitlement to dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC) under 38 U.S.C. § 1318.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claim for further evidentiary development, including obtaining medical opinions on the relationship between in-service asbestos exposure and causes of death, as well as the relationship between in-service herbicide agent exposure and COPD.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient development regarding asbestos exposure during service and its relation to the Veteran's causes of death.
- Denied
The Veteran's death was not caused by any condition incurred or aggravated during service, and the Board denied service connection for the cause of his death.
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