The Veteran's claim for service connection for an upper back/neck disability was denied in October 2007 due to lack of diagnosis and in-service event or injury. The Board has now reopened the claim based on new evidence, but remanded for further examination and opinion regarding service connection.
The deciding factor: New evidence received since the previous denial includes a cervical spine X-ray report confirming degenerative joint disease and additional medical treatment records. However, the July 2011 VA examination did not address the aggravation prong of secondary service connection or provide an opinion on whether the Veteran's current cervical spine disability is related to active service.
- Claimed conditions
- multilevel degenerative changes of the cervical spine
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 26, 2019
- Citation
- 19122788
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,820 · Granted: 26% (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 19122788.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for further development, specifically to obtain a VA examination that considers the ameliorative effects of medication on the Veteran's lumbar and cervical spine disabilities.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the issues of entitlement to an increased rating for multilevel degenerative changes of the cervical spine and residuals, fracture of left transverse process, second lumbar vertebra prior to May 22, 2013.
- Denied
The Veteran's claims for increased evaluations and service connection were denied. The Board also found that the Veteran’s claim of a separate disability evaluation for his spine was remanded.
- 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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