Other conditions Board decisions

The veteran's claim of service connection for prostatitis is being remanded due to the need for further review and consideration in light of recent legal developments regarding the presumption of soundness at service entry.

The Board has determined that the appellant is not eligible to receive VA benefits as she does not meet the legal criteria for being the veteran's surviving spouse.

The appellant is not the veteran's surviving spouse, and therefore does not meet the criteria for VA death benefits.

The Board has determined that new and material evidence has been submitted to reopen the claim for service connection for PTSD. The veteran's claim is therefore reopened.

The Board has remanded the issues of compensable ratings for hemorrhoids, left testicle varicocele and right testicle spermatocele, as well as the issue of a 10 percent rating under 38 C.F.R. § 3.324 to the RO for further development.

The veteran's increased disability rating for gastritis is being remanded due to the need for a more contemporaneous VA examination and consideration of an extraschedular evaluation.

The Board finds that the veteran's emergency room treatment at a private hospital on April 11, 2002 was not an emergent condition requiring immediate medical attention. The VA facilities were feasibly available and the veteran could have sought care there instead.

The Board has granted the veteran's claim for a permanent and total disability rating for pension purposes, effective from February 22, 2001. The decision found that the veteran was totally disabled due to his psychiatric conditions as of that date.

The Board found no evidence of a chronic upper gastric hernia related to service and denied the veteran's claim for service connection.

The Board denied the appellant's claim for VA benefits, finding that he did not have the requisite military service to establish eligibility.

The Board has determined that new and material evidence has not been submitted to reopen the issue of whether the character of the appellant's discharge from military service constitutes a bar to his receipt of VA monetary benefits. As such, the claim is denied.

The Board found that the appellant and veteran are estranged, do not live together, and the veteran does not financially contribute to her support. Therefore, she cannot be considered his dependent spouse for VA benefit purposes.

The Board has remanded the case due to failure of the RO to comply with VCAA notice and duty-to-assist provisions. The appellant's claim for service connection for the cause of the veteran's death, dependency and indemnity compensation benefits under the provisions of 38 U.S.C.A. § 1318, and dependents educational assistance benefits under the provisions of 38 U.S.C.A. Chapter 35 is now before the Board.

The Board has granted service connection for residuals of an injury to the right middle finger and denied increased evaluations for chondromalacia of the left knee and chondromalacia and tear of the medial meniscus cartilage of the right knee.

The veteran's claim of entitlement to special monthly pension based on the need for aid and attendance is being remanded due to incomplete information regarding his vision impairment.

The case is being remanded for additional development to ensure full compliance with due process requirements and to allow the RO to review the claims file and readjudicate the issues of service connection for the cause of the veteran's death and entitlement to Dependents' Educational Assistance under Chapter 35, Title 38, United States Code.

The VA denied the veteran's claims for increased evaluations of his right and left foot conditions, currently rated at 30 percent.

The Board denied the veteran's claim for an earlier effective date for a 100% disability rating for his service-connected gastric ulcer disease with a subtotal gastrectomy and psycho-physiological gastrointestinal reaction in October 1988. The RO subsequently granted this rating in July 1999, but assigned no effective date as the veteran's claim was moot due to the grant of a total schedular evaluation.

The VA determined that the veteran's right deltoid muscle injury, which resulted in moderate impairment, does not warrant a higher rating.

The VA denied a compensable evaluation for the veteran's left middle finger fracture, stating that there is no evidence of ankylosis or other disabling conditions.