The Board has dismissed the claim for service connection for head injury. The claims for service connection for acquired psychiatric disorder and left ankle condition are remanded due to duty-to-assist errors.
The deciding factor: The VA medical opinions were not adequate as they did not consider all of the Veteran's past medical history, including his in-service experiences and post-service symptoms.
- Claimed conditions
- head injury, acquired psychiatric disorder, left ankle condition
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 13, 2020
- Citation
- A20015473
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 remands the claims for service connection for right foot, left elbow, left hip, left ankle, and diabetes mellitus to obtain additional medical evidence.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for various conditions, including a head injury, headache disorder, erectile dysfunction, left earache disorder, chronic fatigue, right shoulder disorder, irritable bowel syndrome, right foot disorder, GERD, and left shoulder disorder, as the evidence did not support current diagnoses of these conditions.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for an acquired psychiatric disorder to correct a duty to assist error, requiring further examination and review of private treatment records.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection due to a pre-decisional duty to assist error, as it is unclear whether the Veteran's claimed conditions are due to any incident of his period of active service.
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