The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient medical opinions regarding whether the Veteran's cervical spine surgery caused additional disability and if so, whether it was due to carelessness or negligence. The case will be returned for further development.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner did not address all of the Veteran's claimed disabilities and did not provide a clear opinion on whether the April 1998 surgical procedure caused additional disability and if so, whether it was due to carelessness or negligence.
- Claimed conditions
- cervical spine surgery, additional disability as a result of cervical spine surgery
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 16, 2021
- Citation
- 21074984
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 21074984.
What this means for you
A remand is not a loss. The Board sent the case back for more development — often a new exam or missing records — before making a final decision. Many remands later end in a grant, and the decision spells out exactly what the Board wanted to see.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection for left knee meniscal tear, bilateral plantar fasciitis, cervical spine surgery, and radiculopathies as secondary to cervical spine surgery due to a pre-decisional duty-to-assist error.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for compensation under 38 U.S.C. § 1151 due to VA treatment, finding that there was no additional disability caused by the 1998 cervical spine surgery and that the Veteran did not suffer from any disabilities related to his spinal surgery.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's appeal is being remanded due to the need for a videoconference hearing before the Board of Veterans' Appeals.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings for his service-connected lumbar myositis, psychoneurosis and conversion hysteria, residuals of shrapnel wounds of the left thigh and pelvis with retained foreign bodies and scars, and residuals of shell fragment wounds of the right thigh and left leg. The veteran was also denied entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to service-connected disabilities.
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