The Veteran's service-connected disabilities, including postoperative lumbar intervertebral disc syndrome and a surgical scar of the lumbar area, rendered him unable to secure or follow a substantially gainful occupation prior to January 26, 2013. The Board granted entitlement to TDIU on an extraschedular basis.
The deciding factor: The Veteran's service-connected disabilities alone made it impossible for him to maintain substantially gainful employment due to pain and functional limitations caused by his medications and other medical conditions.
- Claimed conditions
- postoperative lumbar intervertebral disc syndrome, surgical scar of the lumbar area
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 50%
- Decision date
- January 9, 2023
- Citation
- 23001131
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,612 · Granted: 16% (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 23001131.
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.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the veteran's postoperative lumbar intervertebral disc syndrome, consisting of residuals of multiple low back surgeries, is considered to have been incurred in service as a progression of his service-connected sacroiliitis with left sciatic neuropathy.
- Denied
The VA determined that the veteran's postoperative lumbar intervertebral disc syndrome with left lumbar radiculopathy does not warrant a rating higher than 40 percent.
- 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.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for an initial evaluation in excess of 10 percent for his service-connected coronary artery disease, finding that the evidence did not support a higher rating based on the severity of his condition.
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