The Board has granted service connection for the Veteran's obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) as secondary to his service-connected posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with major depressive disorder, finding that there is at least a 50% probability that OSA was caused by PTSD.
The deciding factor: The Board found the evidence in equipoise regarding whether the Veteran's obstructive sleep apnea was caused by his service-connected PTSD and granted service connection based on secondary service connection criteria.
- Claimed conditions
- Obstructive Sleep Apnea
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 30, 2020
- Citation
- A20016299
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.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for various disabilities and denied higher ratings for several service-connected conditions.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for obstructive sleep apnea as secondary to the Veteran's service-connected psychiatric disorders, lumbar and cervical spine disabilities, bilateral radiculopathy of the upper extremities, and bilateral radiculopathy and neuropathy of the lower extremities.
- Denied
The Board denied a rating in excess of 50 percent for PTSD, finding that the Veteran's symptoms more closely approximated those associated with a 50 percent rating.
- Partly granted
The appeal for entitlement to service connection for obstructive sleep apnea was granted, while other appeals were dismissed as untimely and remanded for further action on essential tremors.
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