The Veteran's cervical spine disorder is granted service connection. The low back and psychiatric disorders are remanded for further development.
The deciding factor: Service medical records show the Veteran had a neck injury during service, which led to ongoing symptoms of stiffness and pain in his neck. A VA examiner opined that it is at least as likely as not that the cervical strain was incurred in or caused by the neck injury during service. For the low back disorder, a VA examination is needed to determine if the current condition had its onset during service.
- Claimed conditions
- Cervical spine disorder, Low back disorder, Acquired psychiatric disorder
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 29, 2020
- Citation
- A20016244
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.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, finding a causal relationship between the condition and an in-service incident of military sexual trauma (MST).
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the issue of entitlement to service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder due to a pre-decisional duty to assist error.
- Partly granted
The Board denied an increased rating for allergic rhinitis and remanded the claims for cervical spine, hip, thigh, and hip extension disorders for further development.
- Partly granted
The Board granted an effective date of May 29, 2019 for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder but denied earlier effective dates and increased ratings for other conditions.
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