The Board found that the Veteran's heart disability was not incurred or aggravated as a result of active service and denied his claim. For the low back disability, the Court determined that the September 2014 rating decision did not properly consider the Veteran's symptoms related to limitation of motion, altered gait, spasms, pain, flare-ups lasting two to three days, discomfort, stiffness, weakness, achiness, and tightness.
The deciding factor: The Board failed to adequately address the Veteran's symptoms in determining his appropriate disability rating for low back disability.
- Claimed conditions
- heart disability, low back disability
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 10%
- Decision date
- February 23, 2016
- Citation
- 1606742
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 1606742.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has found that remand is needed for the Veteran's claims due to duty to assist errors, including clarification of periods of service and obtaining relevant records. The Veteran will be afforded new medical examinations for each claimed disability.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has denied service connection for bilateral hearing loss and remanded the claims of right shoulder disability and low back disability due to insufficient evidence.
- Granted
The Veteran's claim for service connection of a low back disability was granted with an effective date of January 9, 2018. The Board accepted her November 21, 2019 VA Form 20-0996 as a valid opt-in of the April 2019 SOC into the modernized review system.
- Granted
The Veteran's hypertension was granted service connection effective August 10, 2022. The heart disability was granted secondary to the hypertension.,An initial rating of 30% for the heart disability was granted in May 2023 and increased to 60% since October 22, 2024.
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