The Veteran's claim for service connection for degenerative joint disease of the left elbow is granted. The Veteran's claim for an effective date prior to August 23, 2016, for a 70 percent evaluation for PTSD with chronic sleep impairment is granted and set at July 15, 2014.
The deciding factor: The Board concluded that the evidence supported the Veteran’s assertion of a left elbow injury during his Reserve service, leading to current degenerative joint disease. For the PTSD claim, the Board found that there was no medical evidence showing worsening symptoms between the June 2014 VA examination and the February 2017 VA examination, thus granting an effective date based on the receipt of the July 2014 claim.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative Joint Disease of the Left Elbow, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with Chronic Sleep Impairment
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 70%
- Decision date
- November 7, 2019
- Citation
- 19184500
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,316 · Granted: 43% (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 19184500.
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 increased ratings due to insufficient examination findings and conflicting information regarding functional loss.
- Denied
The Veteran's initial rating for degenerative joint disease of the left elbow with elbow strain prior to January 9, 2020 is denied as his flexion was limited to 115 degrees and extension to 20 degrees.,The Veteran's initial rating for impairment of the left forearm supination/pronation prior to January 9, 2020 is denied as both supination and pronation were limited to 70 degrees with painful motion beginning at that degree.
- Granted
The Veteran's degenerative joint disease of the lumbar spine, left shoulder, right shoulder, elbow, ankle, hip, and knee have been granted initial ratings from November 1, 2011 to March 25, 2018. The rating for the lumbar spine was increased to 20% effective March 26, 2018.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's initial disability rating for his service-connected degenerative joint disease of the left elbow is being remanded due to evidence indicating that his condition has worsened.
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