The Veteran's appeal is being remanded for additional medical opinions regarding his service-connected conditions and exposure to environmental hazards in Southwest Asia. The issues of service connection for generalized joint pain and sleep apnea are being addressed.
The deciding factor: The Board found that the evidence did not support a higher rating for migraine headaches prior to August 9, 2018 or from August 9, 2018 onwards. Service connection claims for generalized joint pain and sleep apnea were remanded due to insufficient medical opinions regarding their etiology.
- Claimed conditions
- migraine headaches, generalized joint pain
- How they argued it
- Reopened with new and material evidence
- Exposure basis
- Gulf War
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- August 1, 2019
- Citation
- 19159307
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,456 · Granted: 23% (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 19159307.
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 remanded the claims for bilateral hearing loss, migraine headaches, and PTSD due to additional development of records and examination.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the cases for additional development due to incomplete medical records and insufficient opinions regarding the relationship between service, including a stick injury in England, and current left eye disability (including amblyopia and cataracts) as well as migraine headaches.
- Granted
The Veteran's migraine headaches are productive of very frequent, completely prostrating and prolonged attacks capable of producing severe economic inadaptability. The Board has granted a 50 percent disability rating for the Veteran's service-connected migraine headaches.
- Granted
The Veteran's claim for a higher rating for his service-connected migraine headaches was granted with an effective date of February 28, 2023.
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