The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection due to insufficient medical opinions and new evidence. The issues include thoracic spine, lumbar spine, hip, left leg neurological disability, and left foot drop disabilities that are claimed as secondary to cervical spine myelopathy or TBI.
The deciding factor: The Board found the previous medical opinion inadequate and requires an addendum advisory medical opinion from an orthopedic surgeon to address whether the Veteran's diagnosed thoracolumbar spine, hip, and lower extremity neurological disabilities were caused by or due to his service-connected cervical spine myelopathy or TBI.
- Claimed conditions
- Thoracic spine disability, Lumbar spine disability, Hip disability, Left leg neurological disability, Left foot drop
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- July 19, 2019
- Citation
- 19156048
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 19156048.
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.
- Denied
The Veteran's claims for service connection for headaches and lumbar spine disability, as well as left and right lower extremity radiculopathy, were denied. The effective dates for these conditions are also denied.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for service connection for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) was denied because the disability is not shown as chronic in service and did not manifest to a compensable degree within the applicable presumptive period; continuity of symptomatology is not established; and the disability is not otherwise etiologically related to an in-service injury or disease.,The Veteran's claim for service connection for a lumbar spine disability was denied because the disability was not shown as chronic in service and did not manifest to a compensable degree within the applicable presumptive period; continuity of symptomatology is not established; and the disability is not otherwise etiologically related to an in-service injury or disease.,The Veteran's claim for service connection for a traumatic brain injury (TBI) was denied because there is no evidence of loss of consciousness or memory impairment following the motor vehicle accident during service, and post-service VA treatment records do not show a diagnosis of TBI.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) with agoraphobia with panic attacks as directly related to military service.
- Granted
The Veteran's service connection claim for obstructive sleep apnea is granted, and his increased rating claim for lumbar spine disability is also granted to a 40 percent rating.
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