The Board has determined that additional medical opinions are needed to address the Veteran's claims for bilateral knee, right ankle, left hip, low back strain, acquired psychiatric disability (including PTSD), and headaches conditions as they may be related to his service-connected flat feet condition.,For the heart condition claim, a new VA examination is required due to conflicting in-service medical records.
The deciding factor: The Board found that the existing opinions were inadequate because they did not consider the Veteran's contentions regarding ongoing symptoms and relied solely on the absence of documented complaints at discharge from service.,There are conflicting in-service medical records for the heart condition, which requires a new examination to reconcile these findings.
- Claimed conditions
- Bilateral Knee Condition, Right Ankle Condition, Left Hip Condition, Low Back Strain, Acquired Psychiatric Disability, Headaches, Right Shoulder Condition, Heart Condition
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 4, 2019
- Citation
- 19142400
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,863 · 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 19142400.
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 has denied the Veteran's claims for initial compensable ratings for obstructive sleep apnea and headaches, finding that the evidence does not support a finding of persistent daytime hypersomnolence or other manifestations consistent with a compensable disability rating under the criteria established by Diagnostic Codes. The matter is remanded to obtain additional information from the Veteran regarding his headaches and their impact on his daily life.
- Granted
The Veteran's OSA is granted as secondary to PTSD, but his headaches are denied due to lack of service connection.
- Granted
The Veteran's headaches, which manifested as very frequent and prolonged attacks causing severe economic inadaptability, are granted a 50 percent disability rating for the entire period on appeal.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran seeks an earlier effective date for a 30 percent disability rating for his service-connected headaches, which was awarded with a noncompensable rating at 0 percent. The Board is remanding the claim due to inadequate examination and the need for a new VA examination to evaluate the severity of the Veteran's headaches without considering the ameliorating effects of any medication.
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