The Veteran's cervical spine degenerative disc disease with stenosis, status post anterior cervical fusion, had its onset during service and is granted service connection.
The deciding factor: Service treatment records are negative for any diagnosis or sick call visits for neck pain or injury. The Veteran reported experiencing neck pain since service. His private neurosurgeon's opinion indicated that it was more likely than not his current disability was a result of, or had been worsened by, his in-service work history as a sheet metal worker.
- Claimed conditions
- cervical spine degenerative disc disease with stenosis, status post anterior cervical fusion
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 17, 2019
- Citation
- 19104586
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,374 · Granted: 19% (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 19104586.
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.
- Granted
The claim for service connection was not reopened, and the reduction of rating from 40 percent to 10 percent effective November 1, 2016 was found improper.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's current cervical spine degenerative disc disease with stenosis is related to his military service and grants service connection for this condition.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's appeal for a TDIU is being remanded due to the inadequacy of the September 2010 VA examination and the need for an opinion regarding his employability.
- 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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