Citation Nr: 18150469 Decision Date: 11/15/18 Archive Date: 11/15/18 DOCKET NO. 15-29 399 DATE: November 15, 2018 ORDER Entitlement to service connection for lumbo-sacral spine degenerative disc disease, status-post fusion, is granted. FINDING OF FACT After resolving reasonable doubt in the Veteran’s favor, his lumbo-sacral spine degenerative disc disease, status-post fusion, is related to his active duty service. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for entitlement to service connection for lumbo-sacral spine degenerative disc disease, status-post fusion, have been met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 5107(b) (2012); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.304 (2017). REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty from October 1961 to September 1963. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a February 2015 rating decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). In November 2018, the Veteran testified at a Board hearing before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge. Entitlement to service connection for lumbo-sacral spine degenerative disc disease, status-post fusion. Service connection may be established for a disability resulting from a disease or injury incurred in or aggravated by active service. 38 U.S.C. § 1110; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303. Service connection requires evidence showing: (1) a current disability; (2) incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury in service; and (3) a nexus between the current disability and the disease or injury incurred or aggravated in service. See Shedden v. Principi, 381 F.3d 1163, 1167 (Fed. Cir. 2004). Service connection may be granted for any disease diagnosed after discharge, when all the evidence, including that pertinent to service, establishes that the disability was incurred in service. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(d). The Veteran is diagnosed with lumbo-sacral spine degenerative disc disease, status-post fusion. See February 2015 VA examination. The Veteran testified that he injured his back after a hatch was closed on him when he was climbing up a ladder during service, see November 2018 Board hearing, and this incident, along with back pain, is corroborated by his service treatment records (STRs). See April 1962 and July 1963 STRs. The Veteran and his brother testified that he had back pain after his discharge from service, and that soon after his discharge they visited a chiropractor who diagnosed a compression fracture. See November 2018 Board hearing. A VA examiner opined that the Veteran’s current disability was not related to his active duty service, based in part on the premise that there was no objective evidence of treatment for an acute or chronic lumbar spine condition within one year of service. The Veteran had reported during the examination that he required care about four to five years after his service. See February 2015 VA examination. This opinion is given no probative weight because it is based on a factual premise that is contradicted by the Veteran’s and his brother’s later testimony that he had back pain and treatment shortly after service. The Veteran’s private physician, Dr. W. Akbar, submitted two letters, wherein he opined that he operated on the Veteran’s lumbar spine for an old compression fracture, which then subsequently developed into spinal stenosis, which then required a fusion because of the old compression fracture. He opined thereafter that the Veteran’s disability was at least as likely as not the same condition he suffered from on active duty. See August 2015 and April 2016 correspondence. While Dr. Akbar’s two letters individually are not considered adequate, together they render an adequate opinion. Although Dr. Akbar did not explicitly diagnose lumbo-sacral spine degenerative disc disease, status-post fusion, he is clearly discussing a chain of medical events that led to the Veteran’s spinal fusion, which is part of the February 2015 VA examiner’s diagnosis. Thus, after resolving reasonable doubt in the Veteran’s favor, the Board finds that his lumbo-sacral spine degenerative disc disease, status-post fusion, is related to his active duty service, and service connection is warranted. E. I. VELEZ Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD J. Sandler, Associate Counsel