Citation Nr: 21000095 Decision Date: 01/04/21 Archive Date: 01/04/21 DOCKET NO. 17-17 316 DATE: January 4, 2021 REMANDED Entitlement to service connection for a back condition is remanded. REASONS FOR REMAND The Veteran served on active duty from October 1967 to February 1972, April 1978 to February 1993, and February 1993 to October 1994. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) from a January 2014 rating decision from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). In September 2016, the Veteran withdrew his claim for service connection for posttraumatic stress disorder in writing, which was confirmed by the RO in April 2018. The Veteran’s representative appeared for a hearing on his behalf in September 2020. A transcript of the proceeding is of record. Entitlement to service connection for a back condition is remanded. The Veteran is diagnosed with multi-level degenerative disc disease in the lumbar spine, status post multi-level fusion in 2010. Service treatment records (STRs) reflect several instances of treatment for low back pain and/or low back muscle spasms during his first period of service. The Veteran contends he experienced low back spasms within six months of his discharge from his first period of service in 1972. The Veteran further asserts these symptoms, including more progressive back pain, have continued unabated until present day. The Veteran reports he did not obtained treatment until 2010 because he was raised to deal with pain on his own. See September 2020 Statement in Support of Claim. The Veteran was afforded a VA examination in October 2013. However, this examination failed to consider the Veteran’s competent statements regarding continuity of symptomatology since service. Though another VA examination was provided in February 2017, he failed to appear. At the September 2020 Board hearing, the undersigned found good cause for the Veteran’s failure to appear at the VA examination as he was incarcerated at that time. 38 C.F.R. § 3.655. Accordingly, the Veteran should be afforded another VA examination to determine the etiology of his back condition. The matters are REMANDED for the following action: 1. Obtain updated VA treatment records. 2. Thereafter, the Veteran for a VA examination for his low back disability. The examiner must review the claims file. The examiner is asked to provide a response to the following: (a) Is the degenerative disc disease at least as likely as not related to service, including noted low back strains and muscle spasms in service? (b) Is it at least as likely as not that the degenerative disc disease (1) began during active service, (2) manifested within one year after discharge from service (February 1972), or (3) was noted during service with continuity of the same symptomatology since service? Provide a rationale to support the opinions. In providing the requested opinion, consider the Veteran’s description of his in-service injury and symptoms as well as his post-service symptoms. If there is any medical reason to accept or reject the proposition that the Veteran’s reported injury and symptoms in service and thereafter represented the onset of his current disability, this should be noted. Stated another way, do the Veteran’s reports about his symptoms align with how the currently diagnosed disability is known to develop or are the Veteran’s reports generally inconsistent with medical knowledge or implausible? The examiner’s attention is drawn to the Veteran’s September 2020 Statement in Support of Claim indicating continued low back pain and spasms since August 1972, six months after separation from his first period of service. Nathaniel J. Doan Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals Attorney for the Board K.L. Blevins, Associate Counsel The Board’s decision in this case is binding only with respect to the instant matter decided. This decision is not precedential and does not establish VA policies or interpretations of general applicability. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1303.