Citation Nr: 20030177
Decision Date: 04/29/20	Archive Date: 04/29/20

DOCKET NO. 16-60 311
DATE: April 29, 2020

REMANDED

Service connection for cause of the Veteran’s death is remanded.

REASONS FOR REMAND

The Veteran served on active duty from March 1966 to March 1969. The appellant is the Veteran’s surviving spouse. The Veteran died in January 2016. 

In September 2017, the Board issued a decision that, in pertinent part, denied service connection for cause of the Veteran’s death. The Veteran appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (Court). In June 2019, the Court issued a Memorandum Decision that partially vacated the Board’s September 2017 decision and remanded the matter on appeal for adjudication consistent with the June 2019 Memorandum Decision.

Service connection for cause of the Veteran’s death

The June 2019 Memorandum Decision found numerous difficult medical and regulatory questions were not sufficiently answered by the Board. Remand is necessary to obtain additional medical opinions.

The matters are REMANDED for the following action:

1. Obtain an opinion from an appropriate medical clinician regarding the cause of the Veteran’s death. It may be necessary to obtain opinions from more than one clinician. The clinician should review the claims file and consider all pertinent evidence of record. The clinician must opine:

(a.) Is it at least as likely as not (50 percent or greater probability) the Veteran’s service-connected lumbar spine disability contributed substantially or materially to his death; combined to cause his death; or aided or lent assistance to production of his death? 

The clinician must address the appellant’s contention that there was an unbroken chain between the Veteran’s service-connected lumbar disability and his intracerebral hemorrhage and internal jugular and subclavian vein deep vein thrombosis requiring treatment with anticoagulation. See March 2020 attorney brief. 

(b.) Is it at least as likely as not (50 percent or greater probability) the Veteran’s service-connected psychiatric disability contributed substantially or materially to his death; combined to cause his death; or aided or lent assistance to production of his death?

The clinician should discuss whether his Veteran’s service-connected psychiatric disability produced debilitating effects and general impairment of health to an extent it rendered him materially less capable of resisting the effects of other disease or injury primarily causing his death. See 38 C.F.R. § 3.312(c)(3).

The clinician must provide a detailed rationale for any opinion expressed. If an opinion cannot be given without resorting to speculation, the clinician should explain why and state whether the need to speculate is due to a deficiency in the state of general medical knowledge (no one could respond given medical science and the known facts), the record (additional facts are required), or the examiner (does not have the knowledge or training).

 

 

KELLI A. KORDICH

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans’ Appeals

Attorney for the Board	T. Winkler, Associate Counsel 

The Board’s decision in this case is binding only with respect to the instant matter decided. This decision is not precedential and does not establish VA policies or interpretations of general applicability. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1303.