Radiculopathy VA Claim Grants

Findings of Fact (verbatim from decision)

The Veteran's right lower extremity radiculopathy is proximately due to his service-connected thoracolumbar spine disability.

Findings of Fact (verbatim from decision)

1. Resolving all reasonable doubt in the Veteran's favor, his service-connected lumbar spine disability has resulted in symptomatology that more closely approximates forward flexion of the thoracolumbar spine is 30 degrees or less throughout the appeal period. 2. The evidence persuasively demonstrates that the Veteran has suffered from radiculopathy of the left lower extremity, a neurological manifestation of the Veteran's service-connected lumbar spine disability, with mild incomplete paralysis symptoms.

Reasons & Bases (verbatim from decision)

S. Army from April 1977 to December 1994. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from a January 2015 rating decision of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) regional office which, in pertinent part, continued a 20 percent disability rating, but no higher, for the Veteran's service-connected lumbar spine disability. The Veteran timely appealed the decision and requested a hearing but subsequently withdrew his hearing request. As such, the Board finds that there is no pending hearing request with respect to the issue on appeal. The Board remanded the matter on appeal in August 2021 and February 2023 for additional evidentiary development. As the actions specified in the remands have been completed, the matter has been properly returned to the Board for appellate consideration. See Stegall v. West, 11 Vet. App. 268 (1998). , Part 4. The rating schedule is primarily a guide in the evaluation of disability resulting from all types of diseases and injuries encountered as a result of or incident to military service. The ratings are intended to compensate, as far as can practicably be determined, the average impairment of earning capacity resulting from such diseases and injuries and their residual conditions in civilian occupations. C. R. 1.…

Findings of Fact (verbatim from decision)

1. The Veteran's service-connected radiculopathy, right lower extremity, sciatic nerve is characterized by moderately severe incomplete paralysis as a result of moderate constant pain and numbness and severe intermittent pain and paresthesias/dysesthesias; without more severe manifestations to include severe incomplete paralysis or complete paralysis of the sciatic nerve. 2.…

Reasons & Bases (verbatim from decision)

The Veteran served on active duty in the United States Army from January 1985 to May 1985 and from October 1986 to December 1991. In July 2021, the Board denied entitlement to ratings in excess of 20 percent disabling for the Veteran's bilateral lower extremity peripheral neuropathy. The Veteran appealed these denials to the Court of Appeals for Veteran's Claims (Court). In June 2022, the parties agreed to a Joint Motion for Partial Remand (JMPR). The JMPR formally requested that the Court vacate the Board's July 2021 denials and remand the issues to the Board for corrective measures. In July 2022, the Court granted the JMPR. Pursuant to the JMPR, the Veteran's claims were returned to the Board for further appellate action. In October 2022, the Board again denied the Veteran's claims. In August 2023, the parties agreed to a Joint Motion for Remand (JMR). The JMR formally requested that the Court vacate the Board's October 2022 denial and remand the issues to the Board. The claims have now returned to the Board for further appellate consideration. In a December 2023 statement, the Veteran indicated that not only were his currently assigned ratings inadequate, but that he was not seeking a rating higher than 40 percent for his bilateral lower extremity radiculopathy.…

Findings of Fact (verbatim from decision)

1. The Veteran served on active duty from August 2007 to January 2008, January to September 2009, and September 2009 to May 2011. He has been 100 percent disabled based on unemployability since March 2014 and on a schedular basis since December 2016. 2. Prior to October 5, 2020, lumbar radiculopathy of the right sciatic nerve was characterized by subjective complaints of pain, weakness, numbness, tingling, a lack of balance, and an impaired ability to perform activities of daily living; objective findings included mild incomplete paralysis.

Findings of Fact (verbatim from decision)

1. The evidence is at least in equipoise that the radiculopathy of the Veteran's bilateral lower extremities was caused by her in-service fall. 2. From December 5, 2017, at its most severe, the Veteran's T12 anterior wedge fracture with T8/9 disc herniation has resulted in a combined thoracolumbar range of motion of 180 degrees with guarding and localized tenderness.

Reasons & Bases (verbatim from decision)

The Veteran served on active duty from April 1990 to December 1991. These matters are before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from a November 2018 rating decision of a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). In February 2021, the Veteran testified at a videoconference hearing before the undersigned; a transcript of that hearing is of record. 1. Entitlement to service connection for radiculopathy of the bilateral lower extremities Service connection will be granted if the evidence demonstrates that current disability resulted from an injury or disease incurred in active military service. 38 U.S.C. § 1131; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(a). Establishing service connection generally requires competent evidence of three things: (1) current disability; (2) in-service incurrence of a disease or injury; and (3) a causal relationship between the current disability and the in-service disease or injury. Saunders v. Wilkie, 886 F.3d 1356, 1361 (Fed. Cir. 2018). Consistent with this framework, service connection is warranted for a disease first diagnosed after discharge when all of the evidence, including that pertinent to service, establishes that the disease was incurred in service. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(d). The Veteran was diagnosed with radiculopathy of the lower extremities in the April 2018 VA examination.…