Citation Nr: 18150066
Decision Date: 11/14/18	Archive Date: 11/14/18

DOCKET NO. 07-24 544
DATE:	November 14, 2018
REMANDED
Entitlement to a rating in excess of 30 percent disabling for service-connected arteriolonephrosclerosis with hypertension is remanded.
REASONS FOR REMAND
The Veteran, who served on active duty from August 1981 to August 1989, appealed rating decisions, seeking a higher rating for this disability.
He died in February 2016, and his mother has been substituted as appellant as noted in a March 2018 RO determination. 
A rating in excess of 30 percent for arteriolonephrosclerosis with hypertension is remanded.
Sadly, the Veteran died in February 2016 as noted above. The primary cause of death on the death certificate was listed as multifocal pneumonia and sepsis, decompensated diastolic heart failure, severe aortic stenosis and human immunodeficiency virus with dementia. The RO, in a June 2016 rating decision, thus granted service connection for the cause for the Veteran’s death, noting it was at least in part due to arteriolonephrosclerosis with hypertension. 
The most recent treatment records in the Veteran’s claims file are dated in April 2015. The Veteran had at least two VA hospital admissions between that time and his death, including his terminal hospitalization. No treatment records for these hospitalizations are in the claims file. Because these could be relevant to rating this claim, obtaining these records and any other treatment records dated from April 2015 to the time of his death is necessary to fulfill VA’s duty to assist.
The matter is REMANDED for the following action:
Obtain the Veteran’s VA and any non-VA treatment records for the period from April 2015 to February 2016, to include but not limited to records of VA inpatient treatment from December 5, 2015 with an admitting diagnosis of sepsis, and from January 21, 2016 with an admitting diagnosis of dementia/HIV/ulcers. 
 
C. TRUEBA
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	N. RIPPEL