The Board remands the appeal to obtain an opinion on whether the Veteran's service-connected thoracolumbar spine disorder caused or contributed to his obesity, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus, which in turn may have contributed to his death.

The deciding factor: The private examiner opined that weight gain caused by the service-connected thoracolumbar spine disability led to an increase in blood pressure and diabetes mellitus, contributing factors to the Veteran's death.

Claimed conditions

thoracolumbar spine disorder, obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus

How they argued it

Aggravation of a pre-existing condition

Exposure basis

None

Rating assigned

None in this decision

Decision date

February 26, 2025

Citation

A25017411

Want to see how appeals like this one tend to go? Appeals like mine