The Board has decided to remand the case due to insufficient evidence regarding whether the appellant's left eye condition is related to his service. The VA will need to obtain additional medical opinions and consider relevant service treatment records.
The deciding factor: The VA failed to provide a reasonable effort in obtaining necessary medical opinions that could address the relationship between the appellant's current left eye disability and his military service, including potential exposure to toxic exposures during deployments.
- Claimed conditions
- left eye condition
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 11, 2026
- Citation
- A26022111
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 A26022111.
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's headaches, head scars, left eye condition, and right eye condition are all found to be secondary to his service-connected traumatic brain injury (TBI). Service connection is granted for these conditions.
- Dismissed
The claim of CUE in the February 2020 rating decision regarding service connection for various conditions is dismissed as it was subsumed by a subsequent March 2021 Board decision.
- Dismissed
The Veteran withdrew his appeals regarding the service connection for lumbosacral strain, left and right knee conditions, and left and right eye conditions in May 2024.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has identified several pre-decisional errors and remanded the claims for further development, including obtaining service personnel records and any service treatment records from the Naval Reserves. The Veteran's diagnoses of high-risk open angle glaucoma, incipient age-related nuclear cataract, tinnitus, and bilateral pes planus (flat feet) are conceded by the AOJ. The PACT Act presumption is not applicable to these claims as they do not involve herbicide exposure or other toxic exposures.
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