The Veteran's headaches are service-connected due to an undiagnosed illness during his Southwest Asia service. However, the Veteran's pulmonary disability (asthma), sleep apnea, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus type II are not service-connected.
The deciding factor: The VA physician found that there were no in-service clinical findings indicative of pre-hypertension or pre-diabetes for hypertension and diabetes respectively, and that the Veteran’s conditions did not manifest within one year of his separation from active duty. The VA examiner also concluded that asthma was first diagnosed more than a year after service and sleep apnea was diagnosed 13 years after service.
- Claimed conditions
- headaches, pulmonary disability (asthma), sleep apnea, hypertension, diabetes mellitus type II
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- September 10, 2020
- Citation
- 20059514
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 20059514.
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 has determined that the Veteran's headaches are at least as likely as not caused by his service-connected traumatic brain injury, and thus grants service connection for this condition.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for service connection for hypertension and peripheral neuropathy of the bilateral upper and lower extremities due to insufficient medical opinions regarding their etiology.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's claim for an earlier effective date for diabetes mellitus type II with erectile dysfunction was denied as the evidence did not show that he had been diagnosed and manifested to at least a 10 percent disability rating on or prior to May 8, 2001.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to incomplete development of records and will provide a supplemental statement of the case if necessary.
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