The Veteran's claim for service connection for sleep apnea and the effective date of his grant of service connection for DDD of the lumbar spine are both remanded.
The deciding factor: The evidence is insufficient to determine whether the Veteran has a current disability related to his military service, specifically regarding sleep apnea.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD) of the lumbar spine, Sleep Apnea
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 19, 2019
- Citation
- 19130988
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.
- Partly granted
The Board granted an increased initial evaluation of 70 percent for PTSD but denied evaluations in excess of 10% for tension headaches and in excess of 30% for IBS, and denied service connection for chronic fatigue syndrome. The claims for additional service connections were remanded.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection for various disabilities, including a back disability, right and left lower extremity peripheral nerve disabilities, a right foot disability, sleep apnea, bilateral hearing loss, and tinnitus, to correct pre-decisional duty to assist errors.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's appeal for an earlier effective date for a TDIU and remanded several service connection claims.
- Partly granted
The Board granted a 100 percent disability rating for PTSD, NCD, and TBI prior to May 4, 2023, and restored the 10 percent rating for GERD effective June 8, 2023.
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