Citation Nr: 21011054
Decision Date: 02/26/21	Archive Date: 02/26/21

DOCKET NO. 18-07 382
DATE: February 26, 2021

REMANDED

Entitlement to service connection for prostate cancer, to include as due to exposure to an herbicidal agent, for accrued benefits purposes, is remanded.

Entitlement to service connection for diabetes mellitus, type II, to include as due to exposure to an herbicidal agent, for accrued benefits purposes, is remanded.

INTRODUCTION

The Veteran served on active duty from May 1962 to May 1982.  He died in December 2019 and his surviving spouse has been substituted as the Appellate.

These matters come before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a May 2016 rating decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in Houston, Texas.  In April 2018, the Veteran testified at a hearing before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge.  A transcript of this hearing has been associated with the claims file.

These claims were most recently remanded by the Board November 2020 for additional development.  The RO issued a January 2021 supplemental statement of the case before remitting the appeal to the Board for further appellate review.

REASONS FOR REMAND

In November 2020, the Board remanded the above-captioned claims because a VA examiner limited the scope of the opinion to service connection on a secondary basis to the Veteran’s hypertension, with obesity as an intermediate step.  The Board specifically instructed the examiner to consider the Veteran’s other service-connected disabilities, to include the medications prescribed to treat those disabilities.

In December 2020, the RO obtained an opinion from a VA examiner.  The examiner again limited the opinion to the Veteran’s service-connected hypertension and the prescribed medication.

Regrettably, because the examiner did not consider and discuss the Veteran’s other service-connected disabilities, another remand is required.  See Stegall v. West, 11 Vet. App. 268, 271 (1998).

The matters are REMANDED for the following action:

Obtain a supplemental opinion from a VA examiner regarding the Veteran’s diabetes mellitus, type II, and prostate cancer.  Make the Veteran’s electronic claims file available to and ensure that it is reviewed by the examiner.  All pertinent symptomatology and findings must be reported.  The examiner should then provide an opinion as to whether it is at least as likely as not (a 50 percent probability or greater) that:

(a) The Veteran’s service-connected disability (including, but not limited to, hypertension) and/or any medication prescribed to treat service-connected disability caused OR aggravated the Veteran’s obesity;

(b) If so, was the resulting obesity a substantial factor in causing the Veteran’s diabetes mellitus, type II, and/or prostate cancer; AND

(c) The Veteran’s diabetes mellitus, type II, and/or prostate cancer would not have occurred but for the resulting obesity.

The examiner is advised that the Veteran is service-connected for the following disabilities:  posttraumatic stress disorder; hypertension; tinnitus; gout (right ankle, left hand; left wrist; right foot; left foot; right wrist; left ankle); left foot tendonitis; right wrist ganglion cyst; and right ear hearing loss.  The examiner MUST consider these disabilities individually and collectively, as well as any medications prescribed to treat them, when responding to (a) above.  

All rendered opinions must be accompanied by a thorough rationale.

 

 

T. REYNOLDS

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans’ Appeals

Attorney for the Board	Sean G. Pflugner, 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.