The Veteran's claim for increased ratings for peripheral vascular disease and COPD has been granted. The right common femoral artery endarterectomy, bilateral angioplasty of common iliac arteries with kissing iliac stents scar associated with peripheral vascular disease is not compensable under the applicable rating criteria.
The deciding factor: The increase in disability was first evidenced on February 20, 2014, when the Veteran complained of bilateral leg pain and dyspnea on exertion during a VA vascular surgery consult. The effective date for these ratings is set as February 21, 2014.
- Claimed conditions
- Peripheral Vascular Disease, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 20%
- Decision date
- March 10, 2021
- Citation
- 21013615
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 21013615.
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.
- Denied
The Veteran's death was not caused or contributed to by service or a service-connected disability. The Board denied the claim for service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death as there was no evidence of herbicide exposure during service and no other link between the Veteran's death and his military service.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for peripheral vascular disease as secondary to the Veteran's service-connected diabetes mellitus type II.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has denied service connection for peripheral vascular disease. The issues of service connection for emphysema, COPD, congestive heart failure, hypertension, and pulmonary vascular disease (idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension) are remanded due to inadequate medical opinions.
- Denied
The Veteran's claims for increased evaluations of his service-connected peripheral vascular disease were denied as the evidence did not show that he met the criteria for a higher evaluation under Diagnostic Code 7114.
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