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Board of Veterans' Appeals · Legacy series

Entitlement to service connection for a cervical spine disability is remanded.

January 30, 2026Citation Nr. 26001455Docket 19-22 923va.gov source

  • Entitlement to service connection for a cervical spine disabilityRemanded
  • Entitlement to service connection for a lumbar spine disabilityRemanded
  • Entitlement to service connection for a thoracic spine disabilityRemanded
DecisionAnalysis

Board reasoning

The Board remands for a medical examination to determine etiology, including consideration of parachute jump injury in May 2005 and continuity of symptoms, and to obtain additional records. It notes McLendon standards and that the duty to assist requires examinations when the facts meet criteria, and emphasizes that the third prong is a low threshold for linkage.

Issues

  • Entitlement to service connection for a cervical spine disabilityRemanded
  • Entitlement to service connection for a lumbar spine disabilityRemanded
  • Entitlement to service connection for a thoracic spine disabilityRemanded

Authorities

  • Wood v. Derwinski, 1 Vet. App. 190Cites the duty to assist as not a one-way street
  • McLendon v. Nicholson, 20 Vet. App. 79Sets criteria for needing medical examination (three-prong test)

Extracted with gpt-5-nano-2025-08-07. Citations are kept only when they appear in the decision text.