The Veteran's compensation claim for residuals of left eye cataract surgery under 38 U.S.C. § 1151 is denied because the VA care did not result in additional disability, and there was no fault on VA’s part.
The deciding factor: The Board found that the Veteran did not have additional disability resulting from VA care due to lack of evidence showing any increase in disability following the cataract surgery. The private physician's opinion was deemed insufficient as it relied solely on the Veteran's history without supporting medical records.
- Claimed conditions
- Left eye cataract
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 20, 2019
- Citation
- 19187873
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,797 · Granted: 20% (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 19187873.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's left eye disability is remanded due to the inadequacy of the August 2021 VA examination, which did not consider his prior medical history and service treatment records.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for right knee arthritis, left eye cataract, and headaches due to insufficient medical opinions addressing potential service connection.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for bilateral lagophthalmos, left eye trichiasis (entropion), bilateral punctate keratitis, and cataracts in his eyes. The Board found that there was no evidence linking these conditions to his military service.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran experienced additional disability in the form of worsened visual acuity and glare issues following his left eye cataract surgery on April 18, 2016. The evidence supports a determination that this additional disability was caused by unforeseen inflammation during the aborted surgery, which is not reasonably foreseeable. Therefore, the Veteran's claim for compensation under 38 U.S.C. § 1151 is granted.
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