The Board has reopened the claim for service connection for residuals of a vertebral fracture and a disc disorder due to new evidence. The veteran's back problems during service are not considered to have caused his current conditions.
The deciding factor: A VA examiner opined that the documented back issues in service would not lead to degenerative disc disease or sacrococcygeal fracture.
- Claimed conditions
- vertebral fracture, disc disorder
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 20%
- Decision date
- May 12, 2003
- Citation
- 0308938
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,710 · Granted: 15% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 0308938.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for a lumbosacral strain, degenerative arthritis, lumbar retrolisthesis, a vertebral fracture, and DDD (back disability), as well as right and left lower extremity radiculopathy secondary to the back disability. The decision is based on evidence showing an in-service fall causing a back injury that led to current diagnoses.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's vertebral fracture, claimed as fractured back, had its onset during active military service and is therefore granted service connection.
- Partly granted
The Veteran's claims for service connection for various back and neck conditions were denied. The claim for hypertension associated with herbicide exposure was remanded.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the cases for further action due to new evidence submitted regarding the character of discharge, and also because these issues are intertwined with the decision on the character of discharge.
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