The Veteran's claim for compensation under 38 U.S.C. § 1151 for a neck injury is being remanded due to the need for a new medical opinion regarding whether his condition after the 2014 surgical procedure was caused by carelessness, negligence, or other fault on the part of VA.
The deciding factor: The Board finds that the current examination report does not provide sufficient detail to determine if the Veteran's additional disability is due to the natural progression of his underlying condition or the 2014 surgical procedure. A new opinion from a qualified clinician is needed to address this issue.
- Claimed conditions
- neck injury
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 11, 2024
- Citation
- 24011366
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 24011366.
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.
- Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's request to recognize his December 17, 2008 correspondence as a timely and valid Notice of Disagreement (NOD) with the November 2008 rating decision. The underlying compensation claims will be addressed in a separate Board decision under the Legacy appeal system.
- Granted
The Veteran's kidney stones, neck injury, asthma, and right leg or knee disability are all granted. The Veteran is also awarded a 30% rating for his neck injury. However, the claims for service connection for asthma and right leg or right knee disabilities are remanded due to lack of proper development.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection due to pre-decisional duty to assist errors, including failure to obtain VA and private medical records related to his hip conditions, neck injury, and right shoulder injury.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that the character of the Appellant's discharge is a bar to VA benefits, and thus did not address his service connection claims. The case is being remanded for the AOJ to obtain missing records related to the special court-martial and complete a new determination on the character of the discharge.
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