The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for a left-hand disability as secondary to his service-connected hypertension and residuals of injury to right hand, finding that there was no medical evidence linking the left-hand disability to these conditions.
The deciding factor: The VA examinations and VHA opinion did not find any causal relationship between the Veteran’s service-connected conditions (hypertension and right-hand injury) and his left-hand disability.
- Claimed conditions
- Left-hand disability
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 9, 2019
- Citation
- 19127243
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for various disabilities, including GERD, headaches, bilateral hearing loss, an acquired psychiatric disability, and multiple musculoskeletal and other conditions, as there was no evidence of a current disability related to the Veteran's active duty service.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for the veteran's right shoulder, right-hand, left-hand, right foot, and left foot disabilities as there was no evidence to support a finding that these conditions began during active service or were otherwise related to an in-service injury or disease.
- Partly granted
The Board granted readjudication of the claims for service connection for left-hand and right-hand disabilities based on new and relevant evidence, but remanded them for a VA examination to determine their etiology.
- Granted
The Board granted an increased 60 percent rating for the Veteran's left-hand disability and special monthly compensation (SMC) based on loss of use of the left hand, effective July 17, 2015.
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