Citation Nr: 18152514 Decision Date: 11/23/18 Archive Date: 11/23/18 DOCKET NO. 16-11 319 DATE: November 23, 2018 ORDER Entitlement to specially adapted housing is granted. The claim of entitlement to special home adaptation grant is denied as moot. FINDINGS OF FACT 1. Service connection is in effect for peripheral neuropathy of the bilateral upper and lower extremities with residuals of transischemic attack have rendered the rendered him so helpless as to be in need of regular aid and attendance. 2. Manifestations of the Veteran’s service-connected peripheral neuropathy of the bilateral upper and lower extremities with residuals of transischemic attack are tantamount to loss of use of his lower extremities. CONCLUSIONS OF LAW 1. The criteria for a certificate of eligibility for specially adapted housing have been met. 38 U.S.C. § 2101; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.809; 4.15. 2. The criteria for entitlement to assistance in acquiring specially adapted housing have been met, thereby precluding a special home adaptation grant. 38 U.S.C. § 2101; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.350(a), 3.809, 4.15. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS The Veteran had active duty from September 1966 to September 1968, to include service in the Republic of Vietnam. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a June 2016 rating decision issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in Muskogee, Oklahoma. On his VA Form 9, dated May 2015, the Veteran requested a hearing before a member of the Board. In a letter dated May 29, 2018, VA notified the Veteran that he was scheduled hearing before a member of the Board on September 5, 2018. This notice was mailed to the Veteran’s last known address of record. It was not returned as undeliverable by the postal service. The Veteran failed to report for this scheduled hearing without good cause. VA has received no communication, written or otherwise, from the Veteran pertaining to the hearing. Because the Veteran has failed to appear for his scheduled hearing without good cause and there has been no request for postponement, his request for a hearing will therefore be considered withdrawn. 38 C.F.R. § 20.704(d). 1. Specially Adapted Housing A veteran is eligible for assistance in the acquisition of housing with special features made necessary by the veteran’s service-connected disability if he or she is entitled to compensation for a permanent and total service-connected disability that is due to, as relevant here, “loss of use of one lower extremity together with residuals of organic disease or injury which so affect the functions of balance or propulsion as to preclude locomotion without the aid of braces, crutches, canes, or a wheelchair.” 38 U.S.C. § 2101(a) (2012); see also Jensen v. Shulkin, 29 Vet. App. 66, 78-79 (2017) (finding that “loss of use” exists if a veteran has suffered a deprivation of his ability to use his lower extremity so severe that he is precluded from perambulating without of the required assistive devices and that this definition indicates that locomotion is precluded even if a veteran is capable on occasion of moving about unaided). First, the Veteran’s service-connected peripheral neuropathy of the bilateral upper and lower extremities with residuals of transischemic attack meet the permanent and total service-connected disability requirement. In this regard, permanent total disability is found to exist where service-connected disability has rendered a veteran permanently helpless or permanently bedridden. See 38 C.F.R. 4.15. Here, VA has conceded that the Veteran’s service-connected peripheral neuropathy and stroke residuals have rendered him so helpless as to be in need of regular aid and attendance. See, e.g., Rating Decision (July 2012). Second, manifestations of the Veteran’s service-connected peripheral neuropathy of the lower extremities with residuals of transischemic attack are tantamount to loss of use of his lower extremities for purposes of entitlement to specially adapted housing. In this regard, VA and private clinicians have consistently found that the Veteran’s service-connected peripheral neuropathy with stroke residuals cause weakness, unsteadiness, and mobility issues that place him at a high fall risk, preclude him from ambulating more than a few feet, and have left him scooter-bound. See VA examination (April 2012); VA examination (May 2015) (stoke residuals have left the Veteran scooter-bound); Letter from the Veteran’s private, treating physician of fifteen years (May 8, 2015); VA examination (April 2017). In light of Jensen v. Shulkin, the Board finds that the Veteran’s peripheral neuropathy of the lower extremities with residuals of transischemic attack results in loss of use of the lower extremities as it precludes walking without the use of assistive devices, even though the Veteran is capable of occasionally moving about unaided. As such, entitlement to a certificate of eligibility for assistance in acquiring specially adapted housing under 38 U.S.C. § 2101(a) has been shown. 2. Special Home Adaptation Grant Having determined that the Veteran is eligible for assistance under 38 U.S.C. § 2101(a) for specially adapted housing, the law precludes an award of special home adaptation grant under 38 U.S.C. § 2101(b). Thus, his special home adaptation claim must be denied as moot. STEVEN D. REISS Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD Joshua Castillo, Counsel