The Board has granted an effective date of August 27, 2015 for the establishment of special monthly pension based on need for aid and attendance. The decision is based on retroactive grant of non-service-connected pension.
The deciding factor: The Veteran's total disability due to spasticity and incoordination interfered with his ability to feed himself, maintain hygiene, and manage movements of both upper and lower extremities, necessitating the need for aid and attendance.
- Claimed conditions
- spasticity, extensive functional limitations of both upper and lower extremities
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 50%
- Decision date
- October 22, 2019
- Citation
- 19179768
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,030 · Granted: 17% (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 19179768.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for additional development, including obtaining his National Guard and Reserve service dates and a VA examination to address the nature and etiology of any current spine cord disorder.
- Granted
The Veteran's spinal cord injury and related issues, including loss of sensation from neck down, loss of temperature, loss of genital sensation, left upper extremity weakness, pain, and spasticity, and right upper extremity weakness, were caused by VA medical treatment. The event was not reasonably foreseeable.
- Denied
The Veteran's son, C.M.C., has been diagnosed with partial complex epilepsy, cerebral injury, spasticity and impaired vision. However, he was not shown to have been permanently incapable of self-support by reason of a mental or physical condition prior to reaching the age of 18.
- Granted
The Veteran's additional neurological disability, including right hemiparesis, spasticity, and bowel impairment, is determined to be the result of an event not reasonably foreseeable during his August 2004 cervical spine surgery at VA. The Board finds that this constitutes a direct service connection without any presumption or secondary linkage.
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