The Board has denied service connection for an acquired psychiatric disability and a digestive disability, finding no evidence to support the Veteran's claims. The issue of readjudication of COPD and obstructive sleep apnea is remanded.
The deciding factor: The evidence does not establish that the Veteran's current psychiatric or digestive disabilities are related to his service or secondary to his service-connected bilateral hearing loss.
- Claimed conditions
- Acquired Psychiatric Disability (Depressive Disorder), Digestive Disability
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 14, 2024
- Citation
- A24074517
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,035 · Granted: 30% (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 A24074517.
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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 service connection due to inadequate medical opinions provided in previous examinations and evaluations. The issues include psychiatric disability, sleep apnea, headaches (including as a residual of TBI), digestive disability, and respiratory disability.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case for further development and an examination, as there is potential evidence of a relationship between the Veteran's service or service-connected disability and his digestive disability.
- Denied
The Veteran's digestive disability is manifested by diarrhea, occasional involuntary bowel movements necessitating the wearing of a pad or other absorbent material, and near constant abdominal distress but does not meet the criteria for an evaluation in excess of 30 percent.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's headaches are at least as likely as not caused by his service-connected traumatic brain injury, and thus grants service connection for this condition.
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