The Veteran's rib pain and right chest wall pain were found to be emergent, with VA facilities not feasibly available. The Board granted payment or reimbursement for medical expenses incurred at Brooksville Regional Hospital on June 1, 2016.
The deciding factor: The condition was of such a nature that delay in seeking immediate medical attention would have been hazardous to life or health and VA facilities were not feasibly available.
- Claimed conditions
- rib pain, right chest wall pain
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 7, 2019
- Citation
- 19135283
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,676 · Granted: 24% (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 19135283.
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.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for GERD, back pain, cervical spine disability, and rib pain. The remaining claims were remanded for further development.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for a total disability rating based on individual unemployability (TDIU) due to his service-connected disabilities, finding that the evidence did not support a conclusion that he was unable to secure and follow a substantially gainful occupation.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded three issues: entitlement to separate compensation for shortness of breath and rib pain associated with service-connected pleural fibrosis, as well as the issue of total disability due to individual unemployability (TDIU). The Veteran's respiratory conditions are currently rated at 50 percent combined. Additional development is needed to address the relationship between the Veteran's symptoms and his service-connected conditions, as well as to determine whether he is unemployable.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for a disability manifested by rib pain, finding that there is no evidence of current disability related to active service.
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