The Board has determined that an examination is required to determine if the Veteran's current upper extremity disabilities are related to service, specifically his reports of frostbite during training at Fort Irwin, California.
The deciding factor: The evidence does not establish a diagnosis of current upper extremity disabilities but reflects persistent or recurrent symptoms of disability sufficient to indicate a current disability is likely present.
- Claimed conditions
- left upper extremity frostbite residuals, right upper extremity frostbite residuals
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 30, 2018
- Citation
- 18154623
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 18154623.
What this means for you
A remand is not a loss. The Board sent the case back for more development — often a new exam or missing records — before making a final decision. Many remands later end in a grant, and the decision spells out exactly what the Board wanted to see.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board has denied the Veteran's claim for an effective date prior to July 24, 2017, for the awards of service connection for bilateral lower and upper extremity frostbite, Raynaud’s syndrome, and PTSD. The appeal is based on a direct service connection theory.
- Denied
The Board has determined that the Veteran does not have any current disabilities related to his military service, including back injury residuals, hand disorders, knee disorders, frostbite residuals, or hearing loss and tinnitus.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected cold injury residuals of the upper and lower extremities have been rated at 10 percent prior to July 15, 2008, and at 20 percent since then. The Board finds that these ratings are appropriate.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings for his service-connected lumbar myositis, psychoneurosis and conversion hysteria, residuals of shrapnel wounds of the left thigh and pelvis with retained foreign bodies and scars, and residuals of shell fragment wounds of the right thigh and left leg. The veteran was also denied entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to service-connected disabilities.
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