The Veteran is granted service connection for irritable bowel syndrome and fibromyalgia, both presumed due to undiagnosed illness. The Veteran's claims for bilateral hearing loss, chronic fatigue syndrome, eye condition (corneal abrasion), sinusitis, sleep apnea, low back pain, and scars are not supported by the evidence.
The deciding factor: The Veteran has current diagnoses of irritable bowel syndrome and fibromyalgia that qualify as undiagnosed illnesses under Persian Gulf Veterans criteria. However, there is no evidence of hearing loss or chronic fatigue syndrome to a compensable degree within one year of discharge from service. The eye condition was not diagnosed until after service, and the Veteran's current low back pain does not appear to be related to her military service.
- Claimed conditions
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Fibromyalgia
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 15, 2016
- Citation
- 1647028
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 1647028.
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 decided to remand the case due to a lack of rationale in the VA examiner's opinion and an inconsistency between the examination report and nexus opinion.
- Granted
The Veteran's irritable bowel syndrome is granted a rating of 30 percent, the maximum schedular rating under Diagnostic Code 7319. Service connection for migraine headaches as secondary to service connected tinnitus and PTSD is also granted.
- Denied
The Board has denied the Veteran's request for an earlier effective date of May 19, 2024, for a separate 10 percent rating for GERD. The decision states that prior to this date, ratings for GERD and Irritable Bowel Syndrome could not be combined due to VA regulations at the time.
- Remanded (sent back)
The reduction of the disability rating for headaches from 50% to 30% is not proper and is void ab initio. Effective dates are denied for various service connection claims.,Multiple issues related to initial disability ratings, effective dates, and earlier effective dates for higher ratings are remanded.
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