The veteran is seeking to reopen his claims for service connection for various undiagnosed illness symptoms, including muscle and joint pain, headaches, fatigue, gastrointestinal issues, shortness of breath, and malaise. The Board has determined that additional development is needed before a decision can be made.
The deciding factor: The appeal involves reopening previously denied claims for service connection based on the submission of new and material evidence related to undiagnosed illness symptoms.
- Claimed conditions
- muscle and joint pain, chronic headaches, fatigue, gastrointestinal symptoms, shortness of breath, malaise, intermittent high fevers and elevated liver function tests
- How they argued it
- Reopened with new and material evidence
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 6, 2006
- Citation
- 0616420
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,643 · 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 0616420.
What this means for you
A remand is not a loss. The Board sent the case back for more development — often a new exam or missing records — before making a final decision. Many remands later end in a grant, and the decision spells out exactly what the Board wanted to see.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that the AOJ did not obtain all necessary opinions regarding whether the Veteran's symptoms are related to an undiagnosed illness or medically unexplained chronic multisymptom illness (MUCMI). The claims for service connection for fatigue, fibromyalgia, left elbow disorder, right elbow disorder, and sleep disorder are remanded for further development.
- Granted
The Veteran's effective date for service connection of left leg amputation and associated scars, as well as SMC based on loss of use of the left leg, is set to January 28, 2022. The effective date for DEA eligibility is also set to January 28, 2022. An effective date prior to January 28, 2022, was denied for service connection of chronic headaches.
- Granted
Service connection for chronic headaches and restoration of a 20 percent disability rating for the service-connected left wrist strain are granted.,The appeal to restore a higher disability rating for the broken right foot is dismissed.
- Granted
The Veteran's claim for service connection for migraine headaches, as secondary to tinnitus, is granted. The claims for service connection for hearing loss disability and a disability manifested by shortness of breath other than chronic sinusitis and allergic rhinitis are denied. The claims for service connection for an intestinal disability (diverticulitis), fatigue, hypertension, neck disability, right upper extremity radiculopathy, left upper extremity radiculopathy, right shoulder disability, left shoulder disability, upper and lower back disability, right lower extremity radiculopathy, left lower extremity radiculopathy, right hip disability, left hip disability, right foot pain, left foot pain, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and an acquired psychiatric disorder are all denied.
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