The Veteran received emergency medical treatment at Baylor Medical Center on August 19, 2013 due to severe leg pain and elevated blood pressure. The Board found that the nearest available appropriate level of care was at a non-VA medical center (Baylor Medical Center), and that there were no VA facilities feasibly available for immediate treatment. Therefore, payment is granted.
The deciding factor: The Veteran's condition required immediate attention due to severe symptoms and elevated blood pressure, making it reasonable to expect delay in seeking care would have been hazardous to his health.
- Claimed conditions
- Low back pain, Sciatica
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 29, 2019
- Citation
- 19133172
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,726 · Granted: 19% (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 19133172.
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.
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The Board found that the Veteran does not meet the criteria for eligibility in the PCAFC program due to insufficient evidence showing a need for personal care services, and thus denied the appeal.
- Denied
The Board has denied the appellant's claims for service connection for treatment purposes only under 38 USC Chapter 17 for a disability of the spine and migraine headaches, as there is no evidence to support a nexus between these conditions and his military service.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's back condition is related to his service-connected left knee replacement residuals and grants service connection for this secondary condition.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claim for service connection of low back pain due to a motor vehicle accident during service. The Veteran's lay statements and a buddy statement support his assertion that his back pain began after the 1982 motor vehicle accident. However, both VA examiners provided opinions that were inadequate as they did not consider these statements.
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