The Board has granted service connection for the Veteran's chronic headaches, disability of the pancreas as secondary to substance abuse, disability of the bowel as secondary to substance abuse, and disability of the liver as secondary to substance abuse. Service connection for heart disease (including congestive heart failure) remains pending.
The deciding factor: The Court found that the VA examiner's opinion was not adequately explained in light of the medical treatise evidence submitted by the Veteran, which contradicted various aspects of the reasoning utilized by the October 1998 VA examiner.
- Claimed conditions
- chronic headaches, substance abuse (secondary to PTSD), disability of the pancreas (secondary to substance abuse), disability of the bowel (secondary to substance abuse), disability of the liver (secondary to substance abuse), heart disease (including congestive heart failure) (secondary to service-connected personality change due to a general medical condition with PTSD associated with motor vehicle accident and organic affective disorder due to head trauma)
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- July 6, 2012
- Citation
- 1223472
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 1223472.
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.
- 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.
- Denied
The Veteran's claims for service connection for various conditions, including a left wrist fracture, bilateral hearing loss, Type II diabetes, bilateral glaucoma, OSA, cervical disc herniation, and other musculoskeletal issues are denied.,Service connection is not established for any of the claimed conditions.
- Granted
Major depressive disorder is granted as service connected.,Chronic headaches are readjudicated and granted due to new evidence submitted by the Veteran.
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