The Board remands the claims for a recurrent lumbar spine disability and a recurrent sleep disability to obtain additional evidence and ensure an adequate medical examination.
The deciding factor: The decision is based on pre-decisional errors in verifying service periods and obtaining a sufficient medical opinion regarding the relationship between obstructive sleep apnea and tinnitus.
- Claimed conditions
- Recurrent lumbar spine disability to include degenerative disc disease and spinal stenosis, Recurrent sleep disability to include obstructive sleep apnea
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 2, 2025
- Citation
- A25085431
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 918 · Granted: 32% (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 A25085431.
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.
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The Board of Veterans' Appeals remands the issues of service connection for bilateral hearing loss, a recurrent sleep disability to include obstructive sleep apnea, and ratings for atrial fibrillation and a right groin scar due to unverified periods of active duty with the Florida Air National Guard.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for a psychiatric disability to include PTSD, major depressive disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder as the Veteran's claimed in-service stressors were not verified and there was no competent evidence linking his current disabilities to active service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board of Veterans' Appeals remands the claims for service connection for various recurrent disabilities to allow for further development and verification of the Veteran's periods of active duty, active duty for training, and inactive duty for training with the California Air National Guard.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection and increased ratings due to pre-decisional errors in not verifying periods of active duty, active duty for training, and inactive duty for training with various reserve units and in obtaining adequate medical examinations.
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