The veteran is granted service connection for an undiagnosed illness manifested by chronic pain in the hips, thighs, knees, lower legs or calves, and ankles.
The deciding factor: The pains have existed for more than six months, are 10 percent disabling or more, and are not attributed to a known diagnosis.
- Claimed conditions
- muscle pains, joint pains
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- Gulf War
- Rating assigned
- 40%
- Decision date
- January 8, 2009
- Citation
- 0900855
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,440 · Granted: 30% (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 0900855.
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The Board has withdrawn claims for service connection for joint pains and muscle pain. The remaining issues of service connection for right hand, left hand, left knee, seizures/tremors, immune disorder, and nerve damage are remanded due to duty-to-assist errors.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for service connection due to errors in obtaining relevant records, including service treatment records and VA hospital records. The Veteran's current back and neck disabilities are being examined by a VA examiner to determine if they are related to her military service.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for joint pains, finding that his joint pains are not related to his service and do not qualify as an undiagnosed illness or medically unexplained chronic illness (MUMCI) due to Persian Gulf War service. The Board also found no evidence of a nexus between his hereditary hemochromatosis and joint pain.
- Partly granted
The Board granted a higher rating of 20 percent for the right great toe fracture but denied increased ratings for lumbosacral and thoracic strain with intervertebral disc syndrome, acromioclavicular joint separation, right shoulder, and service connection for joint pains.
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