The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims of service connection for various upper extremity and cervical spine disabilities due to a lack of an examination addressing whether these conditions are related to his service-connected right thumb disability or if they are aggravated by it. The Veteran also needs a new VA examination to assess the current severity of his service-connected right thumb disability.
The deciding factor: The claims were remanded because there is insufficient evidence regarding the relationship between the Veteran's service-connected right thumb disability and his claimed upper extremity disabilities, as well as whether these conditions are aggravated by it. Additionally, a new VA examination was ordered to assess the current severity of the Veteran's service-connected right thumb disability.
- Claimed conditions
- Right Wrist, Right Forearm, Right Elbow, Right Humerus, Right Shoulder, Cervical Spine
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- August 2, 2019
- Citation
- 19160161
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,071 · 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 19160161.
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.
- Dismissed
The Board has dismissed the Veteran's appeal for service connection of a right shoulder disability. Service connection is granted for OSA, left ankle, lumbar spine, and right hip disabilities. The claims for an acquired psychiatric disorder and coronary artery disease are remanded.
- Denied
The Board has denied service connection for the Veteran's claimed right knee, left knee, right hip, left hip, right shoulder, and left shoulder conditions as there is no persuasive evidence that these conditions began during active service or are otherwise related to an in-service injury or disease.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claims for an increased rating for his right shoulder disability and TDIU are being remanded due to inadequate pre-decisional duty-to-assist errors in the October 2020 VA examination, which did not adequately address functional loss during flare-ups. The AOJ is also required to obtain a retrospective medical opinion regarding the severity of the Veteran's service-connected right shoulder disability from May 13, 2020 and request employment information for TDIU consideration.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claims for an increased rating for his right shoulder disability and TDIU are being remanded due to inadequate pre-decisional duty-to-assist errors in the October 2020 VA examination, which did not adequately address functional loss during flare-ups. The AOJ is also required to obtain a retrospective medical opinion regarding the severity of the Veteran's service-connected right shoulder disability from May 13, 2020 and request employment information for TDIU consideration.
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