The Board has granted service connection for depression as secondary to service-connected left ankle and left knee disabilities. The low back condition is remanded due to a duty-to-assist error.
The deciding factor: The Veteran's low back condition may be proximately due or aggravated by his service-connected left ankle injury, left knee degenerative joint disease, and calcaneal spurring of the right foot.
- Claimed conditions
- depression, low back condition
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 2, 2020
- Citation
- A20017845
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 claim for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder to ensure a proper examination and etiology opinion are provided.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the veteran's claims for service connection for various conditions, including back pain, knee and wrist joint pains, neck pain, anxiety, depression, as further development is needed to properly adjudicate these claims.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for generalized anxiety disorder and denied service connection for a lower back disorder. The claims for depression, substance abuse disorder, and a compensable initial rating for bilateral hearing loss were dismissed.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings and other benefits, finding that the evidence did not support higher ratings or additional compensation.
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