The Board found that the Veteran's current degenerative arthritis of the cervical spine did not have its clinical onset in service and is not otherwise related to active duty. The claim was denied as it could not be presumed to have been incurred therein.
The deciding factor: There was no documentation of a neck injury during service, and the medical opinion based solely on the absence of documentation in the record was inadequate.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative arthritis, cervical spine
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 10, 2015
- Citation
- 1515693
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 1515693.
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for a new medical opinion to address whether the Veteran's degenerative arthritis, cervical spine was aggravated by his service-connected degenerative disc disease lumbar spine.
- Denied
The Board has denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for degenerative arthritis, cervical spine as there is no evidence of a current disability that began during or was caused by military service.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected disabilities, in combination, precluded her from obtaining and maintaining substantially gainful employment since June 8, 2019.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for evaluation of service-connected cervical and thoracolumbar spine disabilities due to changes in symptoms since the last VA examination, including new seizures related to the conditions.
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