Citation Nr: 21064356
Decision Date: 10/19/21	Archive Date: 10/19/21

DOCKET NO. 14-39 569
DATE: October 19, 2021

REMANDED

Entitlement to service connection for a heart condition, to include aortic dissection and atrial fibrillation, is remanded.

REASONS FOR REMAND

The Veteran served on active duty from August 1965 to July 1968. He died in June 2018. The appellant is his surviving spouse and has been substituted to pursue the service connection claim pending at the time of his death. 

This matter comes before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from a March 2014 rating decisions of a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). In November 2020, the Board remanded the matter for medical opinions and for the RO's readjudication.

As an initial matter, the Board notes that while the matter was on remand a January 2021 rating decision granted service connection for atherosclerosis, a condition that was part of the present claim for service connection for a heart condition. Since this represented full relief for that disability, it is no longer on appeal. The claim also encompassed the Veteran's aortic dissection and any residuals of surgical repair, as well as atrial fibrillation, and since service connection was denied for these conditions, they are still before the Board. See AB v. Brown, 6 Vet. App. 35, 38 (1993). 

Regrettably, further remand is required in order to ensure compliance with the remands of the Board's prior decision. First, the Board's prior decision directed for an opinion regarding whether the Veteran's aortic dissection, for which he eventually underwent surgical repair, was caused or aggravated by his now-service-connected atherosclerotic heart disease. The record reflects that opinions were provided regarding whether his atrial fibrillation was secondary to his atherosclerotic heart disease, but there is no opinion concerning aortic dissection. Second, the Board directed for the RO's readjudication of the appellant's claim, but the case was returned to the Board without the initial adjudication in light of the new evidence.

A remand by the Board confers on a claimant, as a matter of law, the right to compliance with the remand orders. Stegall v. West, 11 Vet. App. 268, 271 (1998). The Board will therefore remand for a compliant opinion and for readjudication. Id.

The matter is REMANDED for the following action:

1. Obtain an opinion regarding whether the Veteran's aortic dissection was at least as likely as not (i) proximately due to OR (ii) aggravated (worsened beyond the natural progression) by his service-connected atherosclerotic heart disease. 

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2. After the above development and any other development deemed necessary is completed, readjudicate the appellant's claim, to include service connection for aortic dissection and atrial fibrillation as secondary to service-connected atherosclerotic heart disease.

 

 

D. Martz Ames

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans' Appeals

Attorney for the Board	M. Davis, 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.