The Veteran's service connection claims for residuals of a traumatic brain injury, dementia pugilistica, and acquired psychiatric disorders are granted. Service connection is denied for neck disability, right ear hearing loss, right knee disability, left knee disability, right shoulder disability, and left shoulder disability.
The deciding factor: Service connection was established based on the Veteran's in-service boxing history leading to diagnosed conditions such as TBI, dementia pugilistica, and psychiatric disorders. The Board found no evidence of a current neck or hearing disability for VA purposes, and denied service connection for these issues.
- Claimed conditions
- residuals of traumatic brain injury (manifested by headaches), dementia pugilistica, acquired psychiatric disorders (diagnosed as unspecified depressive disorder and an unspecified anxiety disorder)
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 0%
- Decision date
- March 5, 2019
- Citation
- 19115947
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 3,217 · Granted: 46% (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 19115947.
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 Veteran's dementia pugilistica is found to be related to service, including his boxing activities while in the military. The Board grants service connection for dementia pugilistica.
- Granted
The veteran's claim of service connection for dementia pugilistica (formerly cerebral dysfunction) was granted, effective from March 4, 1993. The RO assigned a 30% rating for this condition.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's headaches are at least as likely as not caused by his service-connected traumatic brain injury, and thus grants service connection for this condition.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for service connection for hypertension and peripheral neuropathy of the bilateral upper and lower extremities due to insufficient medical opinions regarding their etiology.
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