The Board has remanded the claims for service connection due to insufficient medical opinions regarding the relationship between the Veteran's service-connected left knee disability and his claimed right foot fracture, left foot tendinitis, and right hip tendinitis. The claims are now pending with instructions to obtain new opinions from qualified physicians.
The deciding factor: The Board found that the previous VA opinion was inadequate as it did not address whether the Veteran's obesity acted as an 'intermediate step' between his service-connected left knee disability and his claimed conditions, or if any of the conditions were related to service on a direct or secondary basis.
- Claimed conditions
- right foot fracture, left foot tendinitis, right hip tendinitis
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 28, 2019
- Citation
- 19181526
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 remands the claim for a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to service-connected disabilities prior to January 31, 2023, as the evidence of record is insufficient to properly evaluate the Veteran's claim.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for service connection for a right foot and/or right lower leg injury (claimed as right foot fracture) to correct pre-decisional duty to assist errors.
- Partly granted
The Board granted an effective date of January 28, 2016, for the grant of service connection for right knee patellofemoral pain syndrome but denied earlier effective dates for the grants of service connection for right and left hip tendinitis.
- Partly granted
Service connection for hyperhidrosis was granted as secondary to service-connected PTSD. Service connection for depression and bilateral athletes' foot was denied. Other issues were remanded.
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