The veteran has been granted compensation for additional disability as a result of VA surgical treatment in 1982 and 1983, including severe facial deformity, speech impairment, and use of tracheostomy and nasogastric tubes.
The deciding factor: The surgeries resulted in an unmanageable facial deformity that required the placement of a feeding tube and necessitated the use of a tracheostomy, worsening his condition compared to pre-surgery levels.
- Claimed conditions
- severe facial deformity, speech impairment, residuals stemming from permanent use of tracheostomy and nasogastric tubes
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 100%
- Decision date
- August 4, 2004
- Citation
- 0421258
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 0421258.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claims for a compensable rating for service-connected speech impairment, service connection for headaches/migraines, and service connection for Meniere's disease are being remanded due to the need for additional examinations.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's thalamic injury and resulting disabilities are the result of a non-VA procedure performed at MUSC. The Board finds that VA may have proximately caused this treatment by referring the Veteran to MUSC for care, but the evidence is incomplete regarding whether VA specifically referred him or if additional records need to be obtained.
- Denied
The Veteran's service-connected speech impairment is currently rated as noncompensable due to the absence of paralysis affecting the twelfth cranial nerve, and there is no evidence of any clinical findings or treatment for such.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for service connection for head injury due to an inadequate medical opinion that failed to consider the Veteran's reported symptoms.
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