The Board has determined that additional development is needed to determine the extent of any muscle injury or disability associated with the Veteran's service-connected right-hand disorders, including his right thumb sprain and right hand metacarpal fracture.
The deciding factor: Additional VA examination is required to assess the severity of the Veteran’s service-connected right-hand disorders.
- Claimed conditions
- Right Thumb Sprain, Status Post Right Hand Fifth Metacarpal Fracture
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 11, 2019
- Citation
- 19103106
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,874 · Granted: 33% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
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 19103106.
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.
- Granted
The Veteran is granted special monthly compensation based on the need for aid and attendance due to his service-connected stroke residuals. He is also granted financial assistance for automobile or other conveyance and adaptive equipment due to permanent loss of use of the left hand.
- Denied
The Veteran's right thumb disability is rated at 10 percent from October 31, 2014 to February 18, 2016. A higher rating of more than 10 percent for the right thumb disability is denied. Service connection for neck strain and back strain is also denied.
- Granted
The Board has granted restoration of a 10 percent rating for the Veteran's right thumb sprain as of March 1, 2017.
- Granted
The Veteran's right thumb condition and residuals of a chipped sternum are currently rated as noncompensable, but the Board has granted initial compensable ratings (10%) for both conditions.
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