The Veteran's claims for secondary service connection for a chronic headache disability and calcaneal spur of the left ankle with sprain are both granted. The headaches are found to be proximately due to his service-connected tinnitus, while the left ankle condition is found to be proximately due to his right lateral collateral ligament sprain.
The deciding factor: The medical opinions provided by private and VA examiners support the Veteran's claims for secondary service connection based on the established link between his current conditions and his service-connected disabilities.
- Claimed conditions
- chronic headache disability, calcaneal spur of the left ankle with sprain
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 0%
- Decision date
- October 1, 2020
- Citation
- 20063970
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,810 · Granted: 23% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
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 20063970.
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.
- Partly granted
The Veteran's claim for service connection for a chronic headache disability was denied. The Board found that the Veteran did not have a current diagnosis of a headache disability.,Service connection for major depressive disorder on a direct basis was granted.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for compensation under 38 U.S.C. § 1151 due to inadequate medical opinions regarding whether his falls and resulting disabilities were caused by VA treatment.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for pituitary adenoma and its secondary conditions: chronic headache disability, right eye blindness, left eye partial blindness, seizure disorder, hypothyroidism, pituitary insufficiency, gynecomastia, and diabetes insipidus.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for a chronic headache disability but denied service connection for chronic right foot pain, to include residuals of a right great toe injury, and a lung condition, to include COPD.
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