The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection for right and left thumb degenerative arthritis due to inadequate medical opinions in previous examinations.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner did not fully comply with the Board's prior remand instructions, specifically addressing all of the Veteran's lay statements regarding in-service football injuries leading to his current bilateral thumb degenerative arthritis.
- Claimed conditions
- right thumb degenerative arthritis, left thumb degenerative arthritis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating
- Not verified here — check the original decision
- Decision date
- November 12, 2024
- Citation
- 24032863
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,886 · Granted: 24% (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 24032863.
What this means for you
A remand sends an issue back for more development, often a new examination or missing records. It does not award the benefit or decide the final outcome. The original decision explains the additional work ordered.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Veteran's appeals for increased ratings for left thumb degenerative arthritis and surgical scars, as well as service connection for hypertension secondary to PTSD, were all denied by the Board of Veterans' Appeals.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection of left elbow, right elbow, and right thumb degenerative arthritis to obtain an addendum VA medical opinion addressing direct causation and aggravation by service-connected disabilities.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the veteran's claims for service connection for various degenerative arthritic conditions of multiple joints and the lower back, as additional evidence is needed.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for right and left thumb degenerative arthritis, finding an approximate balance of positive and negative evidence regarding in-service incurrence and a causal relationship to current disabilities.
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