The Board has determined that the Veteran's current diabetic retinopathy is at least as likely as not related to his service-connected type II diabetes mellitus, and thus grants service connection for this condition.
The deciding factor: The medical opinions provided are of relatively equal weight, with one examiner stating it is less likely than not caused by service-connected diabetes mellitus while the other examiner stated it is at least as likely as not secondary to diabetes mellitus.
- Claimed conditions
- diabetic retinopathy, Bell's Palsy, mild non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 100%
- Decision date
- November 26, 2019
- Citation
- 19188851
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 940 · Granted: 21% (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 19188851.
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 claims for asthma, hypertension with residuals including stroke, DM II, bilateral amputation of all toes, and diabetic neuropathy to obtain VA medical opinions regarding the nature and etiology of these conditions.,The Board also remanded the claim for ED as it is inextricably intertwined with the DM II claim.
- Denied
The Veteran's initial ratings for diabetes and diabetic retinopathy were denied. The Board found that the current ratings adequately reflect the severity of his symptoms, including his need for eye injections to treat his diabetic retinopathy.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for Type II diabetes mellitus and diabetic retinopathy, finding that these conditions are related to the Veteran's service-connected PTSD.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's claims seeking service connection for fatty liver, bilateral upper and lower extremity peripheral neuropathy, Bell's Palsy, GERD, neurobehavioral issues, and throat/esophageal cancer have been dismissed due to procedural errors in filing a concurrent election of review options.
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