Citation Nr: 18158189 Decision Date: 12/14/18 Archive Date: 12/14/18 DOCKET NO. 16-03 558 DATE: December 14, 2018 ORDER Eligibility for financial assistance in the purchase of an automobile or other conveyance and/or necessary adaptive equipment is granted. FINDING OF FACT The Veteran has been granted service connection for disabilities including grand mal epilepsy, right knee degenerative joint disease, and left knee degenerative joint disease; the aforementioned service-connected disabilities at least as likely as not have rendered him essentially wheelchair-bound, with effective permanent loss of use of his feet. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for establishing eligibility for financial assistance in the purchase of an automobile or other conveyance and necessary automobile adaptive equipment are met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 3901, 3902, 5103, 5103A, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.159, 3.350, 3.808. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty in the United States Air Force from July 1961 to August 1963. Eligibility for financial assistance in the purchase of an automobile or other conveyance and/or necessary adaptive equipment Financial assistance may be provided to an “eligible person” in acquiring an automobile or other conveyance and adaptive equipment, or adaptive equipment only. 38 U.S.C. § 3902(a)(b). Eligibility for assistance to purchase a vehicle and adaptive equipment is warranted where one of the following exists as the result of injury or disease incurred or aggravated during active service: (1) loss or permanent loss of use of one or both feet; (2) loss or permanent loss of use of one or both hands; (3) permanent impairment of vision of both eyes, meaning central visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye, with corrective glasses, or central visual acuity of more than 20/200 if there is a field defect in which the peripheral field has contracted to such an extent that the widest diameter of visual field subtends an angular distance no greater than 20 degrees in the better eye; (4) severe burn injury precluding effective operation of an automobile; (5) amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; or, (6) for adaptive equipment only, ankylosis of one or both knees or one or both hips. 38 U.S.C. § 3901; 38 C.F.R. § 3.808. The term “loss of use of a hand or foot” is defined as existing when “no effective function remains other than that which would be equally well served by an amputation stump at the site of election below the elbow or knee with the use of a suitable prosthetic appliance.” 38 C.F.R. § 3.350(a)(2). The Veteran has previously been granted service connection for the following: grand mal epilepsy; adjustment disorder with depressed mood; right knee degenerative joint disease; left knee degenerative joint disease; post-operative gastric resection, ulcer disease; left ear hearing loss; and residual scars due to surgery on the right and left knees. When considering the evidence of record under the law and regulations cited above, the Board finds that the Veteran at least as likely as not meets the criteria for eligibility for financial assistance in the purchase of an automobile or other conveyance and/or automobile adaptive equipment. The Veteran’s VA treatment records document that the Veteran has been primarily dependent on the use of a wheelchair in order to get around for more than ten years. While a VA examiner in March 2013 opined that the Veteran is disabled and in a wheelchair due to stroke “late effects” and not due to his service-connected knee disabilities, and a physician in December 2015 provided a supplemental opinion that nonservice-connected disabilities including late stroke effects, obesity with deconditioning, low back pain from failed back surgery, and poor balance of uncertain etiology were preventing the Veteran from walking, neither opinion addresses the numerous VA treatment records which indicate that his knee pain and seizure residual problems are what has prevented him from walking. VA physical therapy records state that the Veteran is unable to walk because of bicerebral brain damage secondary to his in-service motor vehicle accident, osteoarthritis of the knees, and post-laminectomy changes. While the post-laminectomy changes are not service-connected, the Board finds it highly probative that following his right total knee arthroplasty in November 2011, the Veteran was able to walk some with a walker until his right knee symptoms intensified and he once again became fully reliant on his wheelchair, only able to stand briefly for transfers. The Board therefore finds it at least as likely as not that the Veteran’s service-connected seizure disorder and bilateral knee disabilities are of sufficient severity as to render him essentially unable to make use of his feet. (Continued on the next page)   The weight of the evidence is thus found to have at least reached the point of equipoise regarding whether the Veteran is wheelchair-bound and effectively rendered unable to use his feet due to his service-connected seizure disorder and degenerative joint disease of the bilateral knees. As such, reasonable doubt will be resolved in the Veteran’s favor in finding that he meets the criteria for eligibility under 38 C.F.R. §3.808; the benefit sought on appeal should therefore be granted. MICHAEL MARTIN Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD A. Solomon, Counsel