The Veteran's service-connected disabilities prevent her from obtaining and maintaining substantially gainful employment, granting a total disability rating based on individual unemployability (TDIU) for the entire appellate period.
The deciding factor: The Veteran’s service-connected disabilities significantly impair her ability to perform physical and mental acts required for substantially gainful employment, as evidenced by medical examinations and evaluations.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative disc disease L3-4 and degenerative joint disease L4-5 and L5-S1, Residuals of left shoulder injury with degenerative changes, Instability and subluxation, right knee, status-post meniscal tear with degenerative changes, Right great toe, hallux valgus of the right foot to include degenerative joint disease and osteoporosis right foot, Left great toe, hallux valgus of the left foot, Fracture, distal end of radius and to lateral styloid process, left, Right lower extremity radiculopathy associated with degenerative disc disease L3-4 and degenerative joint disease L4-5 and L5-S1 to include osteoporosis, Left lower extremity radiculopathy associated with degenerative disc disease L3-4 and degenerative joint disease L4-5 and L5-S1 to include osteoporosis, Right foot hammertoes, Left foot hammertoes, Scar, right knee status post meniscectomy, arthroscopic debridement associated with instability and subluxation, right knee status post meniscal tear with degenerative changes
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 100%
- Decision date
- October 1, 2020
- Citation
- 20064204
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,990 · Granted: 35% (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 20064204.
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 Board granted an initial 20 percent rating for left ankle strain and earlier effective dates of August 24, 1998 for service connection of hammertoes in the feet. Other claims were denied.
- Partly granted
The Veteran's GERD is granted a 30 percent evaluation, but no higher. The other issues are remanded for further development.
- Partly granted
The Board granted a 70 percent evaluation for the Veteran's psychiatric disorder and remanded claims for service connection of back condition, as secondary to orthopedic conditions, and compensable evaluation for right foot hammertoes.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for peripheral neuropathy of the right and left upper extremities, ankle instability, bilateral pes planus/flat feet, left foot hammertoes, right foot hammertoes, left foot hallux valgus, right foot hallux valgus, right hip pain, and left hip pain as there was no evidence that these conditions were related to the Veteran's active-duty service.
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