Citation Nr: 21024633 Decision Date: 04/23/21 Archive Date: 04/23/21 DOCKET NO. 10-45 019 DATE: April 23, 2021 ORDER Service connection for a right foot disability is granted. FINDING OF FACT Resolving reasonable doubt in the Veteran’s favor, his right foot disability was incurred during service. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for service connection for a right foot disability have been met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 5107(b) (2012); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.304 (2020) REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty from March 1968 to December 1969. This matter is before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a January 2010 rating decision of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). In January 2014, the Board reopened the previously denied claim of service connection for a right foot disability and remanded the claim for additional development. The Veteran testified at a hearing before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge at a November 2018 hearing. A transcript of that hearing is of record. In March 2020, the Board remanded this and several issues for additional development. In December 2020, the Board again remanded this and several issues for additional development. Service connection for those other issues was granted by the RO, and because those decisions represent a full grant of the benefits sought, those issues are no longer before the Board. Grantham v. Brown, 114 F.3d 1156 (Fed. Cir. 1997). The case is now again before the undersigned. Service connection for a right foot disability is granted. The Veteran asserts that his right foot disability began in service and has continued since then. The Board concludes that the Veteran has a current disability that began during active service. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 5107(b); Holton v. Shinseki, 557 F.3d 1363, 1366 (Fed. Cir. 2009); 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(a). A September 1968 service treatment record (STR) notes the Veteran’s complaint of pain in the front portion of his right foot when he runs excessively or walks. X-rays of the right foot showed foreign bodies near where he was tender over the mid-ball of his foot. During later treatment, x-rays revealed two needles in the plantar portion of the right midfoot in the first intermetatarsal space. The pain was determined to be unrelated to the foreign bodies in his foot. Probable bursitis was diagnosed. During his November 2018 Board hearing, the Veteran testified that he ran out of his barracks in flipflops which slipped off; and he felt something stab him in the foot. Despite this, he continued walking and limping, and was eventually transferred to Korea. While in Korea, he continued to complain of right foot pain; a subsequent x-ray showed needles imbedded in his right foot. The Veteran first filed a claim for service connection for a right foot disability in February 1978 and has repeatedly pursued this claim. During December 1980 treatment, he complained of recurrent right foot pain since 1968. During that treatment, he addressed the needle at the plantar aspect in the third toe of the right foot and stated that his condition has been aggravated in the last two to three years. Physical therapy was recommended. An August 1999 foot MRI showed metallic foreign bodies (needle fragments) at the soft tissues of the right foot. A November 2002 private x-ray showed metallic sutures or foreign bodies projecting at the first and second subcutaneous tissues; a deformity of the fourth proximal phalanx, probably a fracture with early surrounding callous formation; and vascular calcifications. During February 2009 VA treatment, the Veteran reported right foot plantar pain since 1968 when walking moderately or standing for a long time related to a foreign object in his foot during military service. He stated that a needle got stuck in his right foot 43 years earlier while in service. A diagnosis of “foreign body rt (right) foot” was made. A November 2015 VA examiner determined that the Veteran’s right foot disability was not related to service based on the STRs noting that the appearance of foreign bodies in his foot were incidental findings and because there was no evidence of continuity or chronicity of right foot pain as part of this incidental finding until 2009. The Board assigns no probative weight to this opinion as it is based on an inaccurate factual premise based on the fact that the Veteran first complained of pain when he filed his February 1978 claim of service connection, or at the very least, in December 1980 when he reported recurrent right foot pain since 1968. (CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE) Upon review of the record, the Board finds the evidence to at least be in equipoise as to whether the Veteran’s current right foot disability is related to his service. Accordingly, after resolving all doubt in his favor, the Board finds that service connection for a right foot disability is warranted. 38 U.S.C. § 5107; 38 C.F.R. § 3.102. E. I. VELEZ Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals Attorney for the Board T. Matta, 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.