The Veteran's quadriplegia and spinal cord injury are being remanded for further examination to determine if they are secondary to his service-connected psychiatric disability.
The deciding factor: The examiner needs to assess whether the Veteran’s alcohol dependence, which is related to his service-connected psychiatric disability, contributed to his neck injury resulting in quadriplegia and spinal cord injury.
- Claimed conditions
- quadriplegia, spinal cord injury
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 10, 2019
- Citation
- 19192531
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,645 · Granted: 19% (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 19192531.
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 has remanded the case due to a need to associate certain FTCA files with the Veteran's claims file.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for service connection for quadriplegia to correct duty to assist errors, including obtaining outstanding VA treatment records and an adequate medical opinion.
- Partly granted
The veteran's claims for service connection for spinal cord injury, loss of use of bladder, and loss of use of bowel were granted. The claims for loss of use of left and right lower extremities were remanded.
- Denied
The Veteran's claimed conditions, including lower back fractures, spinal cord injury, BLE weakness, cellulitis, and seizures, are not deemed to be the result of VA care or treatment. The Board finds that there is no additional disability due to VA care.
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