The Board has granted service connection for the Veteran's right and left ankle disabilities, finding that they are secondary to his service-connected bilateral tibial stress fractures due to morbid obesity.
The deciding factor: The VA clinicians found the Veteran's obesity was caused by his service-connected bilateral tibial stress fractures, which contributed to a diminished capacity for high intensity exercise required to produce significant weight loss in the morbidly obese. The Board concluded that this satisfies the elements laid out in the VA's Office of General Counsel opinion for obesity to serve as an intermediate step between a service-connected disability and a current disability.
- Claimed conditions
- Right ankle disability, Left ankle disability
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- July 22, 2024
- Citation
- A24039688
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 A24039688.
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.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for an earlier effective date of January 10, 1997, for a 10% disability rating for his right ankle disability is denied as there was no CUE in the previous decisions.
- Granted
The Board has granted the appellant's claim for service connection for left ankle disability residuals, finding that his current condition is due to an in-service injury and granting the benefit of the doubt.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient evidence regarding whether the Veteran's right ankle disability is related to his service. The VA examiner must provide an opinion on this matter.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's claims for service connection have been dismissed due to their death.
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