The Board denied the appellant's claim for compensation under 38 U.S.C. §§ 1805 and 1815 for a child born with spina bifida or covered birth defects, as he does not have spina bifida and his mother is not a Vietnam veteran who had covered service in Korea.
The deciding factor: The appellant's father did not serve in Vietnam or Korea during the covered time period, and the appellant is not the child of a biological mother who is a Vietnam Veteran and, therefore, does not qualify for benefits for birth defects other than spina bifida.
- Claimed conditions
- spina bifida
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 21, 2020
- Citation
- 20004529
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board denied an effective date prior to January 1, 2020 for the grant of benefits under 38 U.S.C. § 1822 for a child born with spina bifida due to the specific statutory effective date set by The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019.
- Partly granted
The Board denied benefits under 38 U.S.C. § 1815 for a child born with birth defects and remanded the claim for benefits under 38 U.S.C. § 1805 for a child born with spina bifida.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the case to determine whether the appellant's congenital neural tube defect caused or contributed to his January 1986 hypoxic brain injury event, and if not, to estimate the type and severity of symptoms he would currently exhibit due to spina bifida.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the case to obtain the Veteran's complete service records and readjudicate the issues of entitlement to benefits for spina bifida and other covered birth defects.
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