The Board denied the veteran's claim for service connection for a lumbar spine disorder, diagnosed as degenerative disc disease, finding that the preponderance of the evidence is against the claim.
The deciding factor: The VA examination in October 2008 found that the current degenerative disc disease was less likely than not caused by or a result of injury during service. The Board considered the veteran's reports but found them to be outweighed by the lack of evidence showing symptoms from separation until 1998 and the intervening lifting injury.
- Claimed conditions
- degenerative disc disease of L5-S1
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 5, 2009
- Citation
- 0904221
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 251 · Granted: 25% (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 0904221.
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 reopened the Veteran's claims for service connection for degenerative disc disease of L5-S1, bilateral hearing loss, and tinnitus. The new evidence received since the final denial supports a finding that these conditions are related to service.
- Denied
The Board has determined that the Veteran's service-connected disabilities do not prevent him from obtaining or retaining substantially gainful employment, and thus does not meet the criteria for an extraschedular TDIU.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case for readjudication due to new evidence received from a VA examination, and the Veteran is given an opportunity to respond with a supplemental statement of the case.
- Granted
The Veteran's death was caused by a heart disorder that was aggravated during service due to his pre-existing psoriatic arthritis, which contributed substantially to his cardiovascular condition.
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