The Board found that the veteran's current neck disorder, including degenerative arthritis of the cervical spine, began many years after service and was not caused by any incident of service. Therefore, the claim for service connection for residuals of a neck injury is denied.
The deciding factor: There is no competent evidence to support a relationship between the veteran's current neck disorder and his military service.
- Claimed conditions
- neck injury, degenerative arthritis of cervical spine
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 24, 2004
- Citation
- 0407681
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 685 · Granted: 36% (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 0407681.
What this means for you
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What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's request to recognize his December 17, 2008 correspondence as a timely and valid Notice of Disagreement (NOD) with the November 2008 rating decision. The underlying compensation claims will be addressed in a separate Board decision under the Legacy appeal system.
- Granted
The Veteran's kidney stones, neck injury, asthma, and right leg or knee disability are all granted. The Veteran is also awarded a 30% rating for his neck injury. However, the claims for service connection for asthma and right leg or right knee disabilities are remanded due to lack of proper development.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for service connection for sleep apnea was denied as there is no current diagnosis of the condition.,PTSD resulted in reduced reliability and productivity, but did not meet criteria for a higher rating.,Tension headaches did not meet criteria for a higher rating based on characteristic prostrating attacks.,Degenerative arthritis of cervical spine did not meet criteria for a higher rating due to limitation of motion.,Right shoulder impingement did not meet criteria for a higher rating due to limitation of motion.,Left shoulder impingement syndrome, rotator cuff tendonitis, did not meet criteria for a higher rating due to limitation of motion.,IBS manifested as moderate, frequent episodes of abdominal distress and did not meet criteria for a higher rating.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection due to pre-decisional duty to assist errors, including failure to obtain VA and private medical records related to his hip conditions, neck injury, and right shoulder injury.
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