The Veteran's left eye disability is remanded due to the inadequacy of the August 2021 VA examination, which did not consider his prior medical history and service treatment records.
The deciding factor: The examiner failed to address the Veteran's prior medical history, including a childhood BB injury and an in-service motor vehicle accident, which could affect the etiology of his current left eye disability.
- Claimed conditions
- Left eye cataract
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 6, 2024
- Citation
- A24072595
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 837 · Granted: 24% (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 A24072595.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for right knee arthritis, left eye cataract, and headaches due to insufficient medical opinions addressing potential service connection.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for bilateral lagophthalmos, left eye trichiasis (entropion), bilateral punctate keratitis, and cataracts in his eyes. The Board found that there was no evidence linking these conditions to his military service.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran experienced additional disability in the form of worsened visual acuity and glare issues following his left eye cataract surgery on April 18, 2016. The evidence supports a determination that this additional disability was caused by unforeseen inflammation during the aborted surgery, which is not reasonably foreseeable. Therefore, the Veteran's claim for compensation under 38 U.S.C. § 1151 is granted.
- Granted
The Board granted a 40 percent rating for bilateral retinopathy, status post cataract surgery, as of September 15, 2015. The Veteran's eye disability was rated based on visual impairment due to the conditions and not incapacitating episodes.
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