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Denied

The Board denied service connection for a bilateral knee disorder, hypertension, and sleep apnea. The Veteran's knee disorder is not considered to have been incurred in or aggravated by active duty service or reserve training.,Service connection was also denied for hypertension, as the evidence does not support its onset during active duty service or reserve training. The Board found that the Veteran’s current diagnosis of hypertension is more likely related to his age and weight rather than any military service.

The deciding factor: The VA examiner concluded that the Veteran's knee disorder was not incurred in or aggravated by an injury sustained during active duty, ACDUTRA, or INACDUTRA. The examiner attributed the disability to factors such as age and heredity rather than military service.

Claimed conditions
bilateral knee disorder, hypertension, sleep apnea
How they argued it
Direct service connection
Exposure basis
None
Rating assigned
None in this decision
Decision date
December 20, 2019
Citation
19195873

Veterans Law Judge

KELLI A. KORDICH

Decisions by this judge: 2,287 · Granted: 23% (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 19195873.

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