The Board has denied the Veteran's claim for service connection of a right elbow disability. The remaining claims for cervical spine, left great toe, left knee, and PTSD disabilities are remanded due to insufficient evidence.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner did not provide an adequate opinion regarding the etiology of the Veteran’s current cervical spine, left great toe, left knee, and PTSD disabilities, as they were based solely on a lack of corroborating documentation in the Veteran's STRs without explaining why this would be the case.
- Claimed conditions
- Right Elbow Disability, Cervical Spine (Neck) Disability, Left Great Toe Disability, Left Knee Disability, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 19, 2018
- Citation
- 18151459
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 18151459.
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.
- Denied
The Veteran's service-connected knee disabilities are rated at 10% each, and the Board finds that higher ratings are not warranted based on the evidence of record.
- Denied
The Board has determined that the Veteran's bilateral knee disabilities are not related to his active service, and thus denied both claims for service connection.
- Denied
The Veteran's left knee disability is currently rated at 30 percent, and the Board finds no evidence of clear and unmistakable error in assigning an effective date of June 19, 2002.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for an effective date prior to December 27, 2019 for the grant of service connection for PTSD was denied as there is no earlier claim document in the claims file and the Veteran did not timely perfect an appeal.
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