The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection for cervical and thoracolumbar spine disabilities due to conflicting medical opinions. The VA examiner is requested to provide a new opinion regarding whether these conditions are related to her May 2010 injury in service.
The deciding factor: There are conflicting medical opinions on whether the Veteran’s diagnosed cervical and thoracolumbar spine disabilities are related to her May 2010 injury in service. The VA examiner is requested to provide a new opinion regarding this issue.
- Claimed conditions
- Disc disease of the cervical spine, Multilevel degenerative changes of the thoracolumbar spine
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 29, 2019
- Citation
- 19107010
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,088 · 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 19107010.
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
Service connection for PTSD is granted. The Veteran's service-connected disc disease of the lumbar spine with hemangiolipoma of the thoracic spine and cervical spine are remanded for further evaluation.
- Granted
The Veteran's degenerative joint and disc disease of the thoracolumbar spine is currently rated at 40 percent effective October 11, 2012. The Veteran's disc disease of the cervical spine remains rated at 20 percent.
- 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.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for an initial evaluation in excess of 10 percent for his service-connected coronary artery disease, finding that the evidence did not support a higher rating based on the severity of his condition.
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