Citation Nr: 21021700
Decision Date: 04/13/21	Archive Date: 04/13/21

DOCKET NO. 16-41 937
DATE: April 13, 2021

REMANDED

Entitlement to service connection for a thyroid condition is remanded.

REASONS FOR REMAND

The Veteran served on active duty from November 1966 to January 1969 and from January 1971 to January 1974, with service in the Republic of Vietnam. In November 2018, the Veteran testified at a hearing before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge. A transcript of the proceeding is in the record.

The Board denied the claim in a July 2019 decision. The Veteran appealed the decision to the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (Court). In a November 2020 Order, the Court vacated the above-noted issue and remanded the matter to the Board for development consistent with the parties’ Joint Motion for Partial Remand (Joint Motion).

The claim is remanded to obtain an adequate medical opinion that addresses the whether the Veteran’s diagnosed thyroid condition was at least as likely as not the result of his conceded in-service herbicide exposure. As noted in the JMPR, the examiner must address whether the thyroid condition may still be the result of in-service exposure to herbicides on a direct basis even though the condition may not be subject to presumptive service connection. 

The matters are REMANDED for the following action:

Schedule the Veteran for an examination (or telehealth interview, review of the record, etc., if an in-person examination is not feasible) by an appropriate clinician to determine the nature and etiology of any diagnosed thyroid condition. Copies of all pertinent records must be made available to the examiner for review. Based on the examination and review of the record, the examiner must answer the following: 

(a) Is it at least as likely as not that any diagnosed condition, to include euthyroid multinodular goiter (i) had its onset in service, or (ii) otherwise related to active duty service, to include the Veteran’s conceded exposure to herbicides while stationed in Vietnam.

The examiner is specifically instructed that service connection could still be established if the evidence shows that a diagnosed thyroid condition was, in fact, caused by exposure to herbicides or some other incident of service despite not qualifying for service connection on a presumptive basis under VA regulations. Combee v. Brown, 34 F.3d 1039 (Fed. Cir. 1994). 

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The examiner is asked to provide an explanatory rationale for the conclusion reached that is based on the evidence of record and sound medical principles. 

 

 

M. E. Larkin

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans’ Appeals

Attorney for the Board	Jack S. Komperda, 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.