The Board has denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for a gastrointestinal disability, including celiac disease. The evidence does not support a finding that her current condition is related to her active duty or any medication taken in conjunction with her service-connected TBI.
The deciding factor: The medical opinions provided by VA examiners found no direct link between the Veteran's current gastrointestinal disability and her active duty service, nor did they find it was caused by or aggravated by her service-connected TBI.
- Claimed conditions
- Gastrointestinal disability, Celiac disease
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating
- Not verified here — check the original decision
- Decision date
- October 29, 2020
- Citation
- 20070172
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,456 · Granted: 23% (granted or partly granted, in the indexed 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. Read the original VA decision (opens in a new tab) using citation 20070172.
What this means for you
A final Board denial may be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, generally within 120 days of the Board mailing date. A Supplemental Claim with new and relevant evidence is a separate option. Another Higher-Level Review of the Board decision is not available. Check your own notice: this historical decision does not set your deadline.
What you can do next
Use your own notice and decision stage. A remanded issue is not a final court-appealable denial. VA review guidance and CAVC filing instructions (U.S. federal; reviewed October 7, 2026).
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Whole decision: Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to errors in the duty to assist and insufficient opinions regarding service connection for a gastrointestinal disability. The Veteran's symptoms include epigastric burning, regurgitation, nausea without vomiting, persistently recurrent epigastric distress, reflux, substernal pain, sleep disturbance caused by esophageal reflux, diarrhea, dysphagia, Barrett's esophagus, and esophagitis.
- Whole decision: Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's claim for service connection for a gastrointestinal disability, finding that his current condition is at least as likely as not related to his active military service.
- Whole decision: Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the cases for further development due to issues related to CUE in a previous rating decision, earlier effective date claims, and a claim for an increased rating.
- Whole decision: Denied
The Veteran's appeal for a higher rating for major depressive disorder was denied, and service connection claims for respiratory and gastrointestinal disabilities were also denied.
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