Citation Nr: 18157542
Decision Date: 12/12/18	Archive Date: 12/12/18

DOCKET NO. 16-62 595
DATE:	December 12, 2018
ORDER
The claim for entitlement to service connection for a thoracolumbar condition is granted.
FINDING OF FACT
The evidence of record is in equipoise as to whether the Veteran’s thoracolumbar condition is etiologically related to service.
CONCLUSION OF LAW
Resolving all reasonable doubt in the Veteran’s favor, the criteria for service connection for a thoracolumbar condition have been met.  38 U.S.C. §§ 1101, 1110, 5107 (2012); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303 (2018).
REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION
The Veteran served on active duty from August 1988 to November 2010.
This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a December 2015 rating decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in Nashville, Tennessee (Agency of Original Jurisdiction (AOJ).
Entitlement to service connection for a thoracolumbar condition is granted.
Service connection will be granted if the Veteran has a disability resulting from personal injury or disease incurred in the line of duty, or for aggravation of a preexisting injury or disease incurred in the line of duty during active service.  38 U.S.C. § 1110; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303.
To establish service connection, the evidence must show (1) a present disability, (2) an in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury, and (3) a causal relationship between the present disability and the disease or injury incurred or aggravated during service.  Shedden v. Principi, 381 F.3d 1163, 1167 (Fed. Cir. 2004).
The Veteran seeks service connection for a back condition.  The record demonstrates that the Veteran has current diagnoses of lumbosacral strain and thoracolumbar arthritis.  See, e.g., November 2015 VA Examination Report, and Private Independent Medical Examination Report received in May 2017.
The Veteran has stated his back condition is linked to heavy lifting of boxes performed while conducting in-service duties as a vehicle maintenance supervisor. 
The Board finds the Veteran’s reports credible and consistent with the evidence of record and the Veteran’s service. 
The dispositive issue on appeal concerns whether there is a causal relationship between the Veteran’s current thoracolumbar condition and military service.
The record includes opinions for and against the claim. In November 2015, the VA examiner opined that the Veteran’s thoracolumbar condition was likely not due to service; the examiner instead opined the condition was multi-factorial in nature.
In a medical report received in May 2017, a private chiropractor opined that the Veteran’s thoracolumbar condition was more likely related to service.  In support of this opinion, the examiner cited repetitive trauma and overuse from years of military service.
The November 2015 and May 2017 opinions are rendered by equally qualified professionals with no compelling reason to discount the basis for either opinion. 
In sum, based on the totality of the evidence and affording the Veteran the benefit of all reasonable doubt, the Board finds that the Veteran’s current thoracolumbar disability is causally related to his duties performed in service.  See Wise v. Shinseki, 26 Vet. App. 517, 531 (2014) (“By requiring only an ‘approximate balance of positive and negative evidence’..., the nation, ‘in recognition of our debt to our veterans,’ has ‘taken upon itself the risk of error’ in awarding... benefits.”).  As such, he is entitled to a grant of service connection for thoracolumbar disability.

 
T. MAINELLI
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	N. Rasool