The Board remands the claims for additional development to determine whether the Veteran has an additional disability, to include a left and/or right wrist or hand disorder, as a result of the excision of a right shoulder mass and right cubital tunnel release performed by VA in June 2016 and/or as a result of his post-operative treatment.
The deciding factor: The April 2022 VA examiner's opinion was found inadequate due to her failure to acknowledge that the Veteran had been prescribed pain medication immediately following the surgery, which likely masked any pertinent symptoms.
- Claimed conditions
- right hand and wrist numbness, left hand and wrist numbness, loss of use of both hands
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 14, 2025
- Citation
- 25005002
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,676 · 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 25005002.
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.
- Granted
The Veteran's loss of use of both hands is granted with a 100% rating from May 4, 2015 to September 15, 2019. SMC(n) and SMC(p) are also granted for the period before September 16, 2019.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for compensation under 38 U.S.C. § 1151 due to numbness and loss of use in both hands resulting from surgery performed by VA in June 2016.
- Partly granted
The Board granted an initial 100 percent rating for Parkinson's disease with major neurocognitive disorder and a 100 percent rating for loss of use of both feet and hands from June 7, 2021. The other claims were denied.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claim for special monthly compensation (SMC) based on loss of use of both hands and upper extremities due to its inextricability with other pending claims. The AOJ is instructed to adjudicate all SMC claims within the same decision.
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