The Board remands the service connection claim for spina bifida, lumbar spine due to a duty to assist error in not obtaining identified private treatment records and SSA disability records.
The deciding factor: A remand is necessary to obtain relevant medical records that may be pertinent to the Veteran's claim of service connection for spina bifida, lumbar spine.
- Claimed conditions
- spina bifida, lumbar spine
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 11, 2025
- Citation
- A25051168
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.
- Denied
The Board denied an effective date prior to January 1, 2020 for the grant of benefits under 38 U.S.C. § 1822 for a child born with spina bifida due to the specific statutory effective date set by The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019.
- Partly granted
The Board denied benefits under 38 U.S.C. § 1815 for a child born with birth defects and remanded the claim for benefits under 38 U.S.C. § 1805 for a child born with spina bifida.
- Granted
The veteran was granted a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to his service-connected disabilities.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the case to determine whether the appellant's congenital neural tube defect caused or contributed to his January 1986 hypoxic brain injury event, and if not, to estimate the type and severity of symptoms he would currently exhibit due to spina bifida.
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