The Veteran's service-connected disabilities have rendered her unable to engage and retain substantially gainful employment, as evidenced by her inability to perform physical or sedentary work due to chronic neck and back pain.
The deciding factor: The Veteran's service-connected cervical spine conditions render her unable to maintain employment in physical labor due to pain with lifting and repeated flexion of the neck. She is also unable to perform sedentary work due to prolonged sitting causing pain.
- Claimed conditions
- Cervical spine (degenerative disc disease, degenerative arthritis, and chronic sprain), Left knee strain, Chronic lumbar strain, Hepatitis B, Tension headaches
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 80%
- Decision date
- March 20, 2019
- Citation
- 19120572
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,092 · Granted: 42% (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 19120572.
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 Board has granted service connection for cervical spine strain, right wrist sprain, right knee strain, left knee strain, and right ankle strain. The disabilities are all deemed to have begun during the Veteran's active duty.
- Granted
The Veteran's initial evaluation for tension headaches to include migraines is granted, with a rating of 50 percent effective from May 23, 2023.
- Granted
The Veteran's tension headaches, which have been service-connected since the grant of service connection, are found to be very frequent and completely prostrating with prolonged attacks productive of severe economic inadaptability. The Board grants an initial 50 percent rating for tension headaches prior to December 1, 2020.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claim for a compensable disability rating for tension and migraine headaches is remanded due to the inadequacy of the September 2020 VA examination report, which did not consider the ameliorative effects of medication.
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