The Board remands the claim for further development to verify the Veteran's dates of service and obtain an addendum medical opinion.
The deciding factor: Further development is needed to verify the Veteran's period of service at the time of his December 2016 diagnosis, as well as to address the required prong of aggravation in the October 2019 VA medical opinion.
- Claimed conditions
- thoracic aortic aneurysm
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 29, 2025
- Citation
- A25094013
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,569 · Granted: 26% (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 A25094013.
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 remands the claims for service connection due to a duty to assist error, requiring adequate medical nexus opinions.
- Denied
The Board has denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for thoracic aortic aneurysm disability and for an initial compensable rating for hypertension disability. The Board found that there was no evidence of a causal relationship between the disabilities and the Veteran's service, including presumed herbicide exposure.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection due to insufficient evidence regarding the nature and etiology of his thoracic aortic aneurysm, heart condition (claimed as ischemic heart disease), and respiratory condition. The VA is directed to obtain medical records from non-VA providers and provide the Veteran with a comprehensive examination to address these issues.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided that the Veteran's heart disability, including thoracic aortic aneurysm and nonischemic cardiomyopathy, is secondary to his PTSD. However, due to a duty to assist error in failing to obtain an adequate opinion regarding whether PTSD aggravated any heart condition, the case is being remanded for further evaluation.
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