The Board remanded the claim for service connection of thyroidectomy residuals due to radiation exposure, requiring further development and a VA examination.
The deciding factor: The Board found pre-decisional duty to assist errors in the adjudication process.
- Claimed conditions
- hypothyroidism, loss of range of motion in the neck, hoarseness, difficulty swallowing
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- Ionizing radiation
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 24, 2025
- Citation
- A25006387
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,677 · 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 A25006387.
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 is granted an effective date of January 8, 2020 for SMC based on the need for regular aid and attendance due to service-connected chronic seronegative myasthenia gravis and hoarseness.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's initial compensable evaluation for hypothyroidism is denied, and the Board finds that service connection for lumbar degenerative disc disease and bilateral foot condition should be remanded due to a pre-decisional duty to assist error.
- Denied
The Board has determined that the Veteran does not have a current diagnosis of hypothyroidism and therefore denied their claim for service connection.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeal for an initial rating in excess of 10 percent for tinnitus was dismissed. The Board granted service connection for hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's thyroiditis with complications, including depression, anxiety, insomnia, vitamin deficiencies, memory/cognitive impairment, unexplained arthralgias, fatigue, hair loss, and bradycardia.
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