The Board denied the veteran's claims for an earlier effective date for service connection for right and left pneumothorax, finding that his correspondence did not constitute a valid Notice of Disagreement.
The deciding factor: The letters from the Veteran expressed dissatisfaction but did not indicate a desire to contest the result or request help in filing an appeal, thus failing to meet the criteria for a Notice of Disagreement under VA law at the time.
- Claimed conditions
- right pneumothorax, left pneumothorax
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating
- Not verified here — check the original decision
- Decision date
- November 20, 2024
- Citation
- 24033247
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,035 · Granted: 30% (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 24033247.
What this means for you
A final Board denial may be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, generally within 120 days of the Board mailing date. A Supplemental Claim with new and relevant evidence is a separate option. Another Higher-Level Review of the Board decision is not available. Check your own notice: this historical decision does not set your deadline.
What you can do next
Use your own notice and decision stage. A remanded issue is not a final court-appealable denial. VA review guidance and CAVC filing instructions (U.S. federal; reviewed October 7, 2026).
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Whole decision: Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the matter for a review to properly determine the severity of the Veteran's throat cancer residuals, including peripheral neuropathy, loss of dentition, dry mouth, hoarseness, GERD, shortness of breath, left pneumothorax, and rhonchi conditions.
- Whole decision: Granted
The Board granted a 10 percent disability rating based on multiple noncompensable service-connected disabilities for the period on appeal prior to May 31, 2016.
- Whole decision: Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for an initial rating in excess of 0 percent for service-connected headaches and dismissed the appeal regarding the propriety of a proposed reduction in the evaluation of right pneumothorax from 20 percent to 0 percent.
- Whole decision: Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claims for higher ratings and a specific disability rating are being remanded due to inconsistencies in the VA examination findings.
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