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Denied

The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for a right foot injury, finding that there was no evidence linking his current condition to an in-service injury. The appeal seeking service connection for degenerative arthritis of the cervical spine, right shoulder condition, left shoulder condition, and TDIU has been withdrawn by the Veteran.,The Board remanded the claims for service connection for lower back injury, COPD, and OSA due to insufficient evidence regarding their onset during active duty or qualifying periods of inactive duty training.

The deciding factor: There is no medical evidence linking the current right foot condition to an in-service heel fracture. The Veteran's complaints are not supported by contemporaneous medical records.,The Board found that there was insufficient evidence to establish a nexus between the Veteran’s current back conditions and his active duty service, as well as whether any congenital defects were aggravated by military service.

Claimed conditions
Right Foot Injury, Degenerative Arthritis of Cervical Spine, Degenerative Arthritis of Lumbar Spine, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)
How they argued it
Direct service connection
Exposure basis
None
Rating assigned
None in this decision
Decision date
November 4, 2019
Citation
19183246

Veterans Law Judge

TANYA SMITH

Decisions by this judge: 1,828 · Granted: 32% (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 19183246.

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