Citation Nr: 21028217
Decision Date: 05/10/21	Archive Date: 05/10/21

DOCKET NO. 14-03 826
DATE: May 10, 2021

REMANDED

Entitlement to service connection for headaches is remanded.

INTRODUCTION

The Veteran served on active duty from May 1974 to May 1977, with additional service in the National Guard.

This matter comes before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from an October 2011 rating decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

In September 2016, the Veteran testified at a hearing before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge.  A transcript of this hearing has been associated with the claims file.

This claim was most recently remanded in April 2020, for additional development.  After the issuance of an August 2020 supplemental statement of the case, the appeal was remitted to the Board for further appellate review.  

REASONS FOR REMAND

In the April 2020 remand, the Board directed the RO to provide the Veteran with a VA examination to ascertain the presence and/or nature of any headache disability.

In June 2020, the Veteran underwent the requested VA examination.  The Board finds that the examiner's opinion is inadequate, in that it fails to contain a thorough rationale.  The opinion concludes with the statement that no nexus has been established.  The purpose of the examination is to obtain an opinion from a medical professional as whether he/she believes that the claimed disability is etiologically related to service, not whether the evidence has or has not already established that link.  Further, the examiner failed to consider whether the Veteran experiences headaches as a manifestation of a disability, instead limiting the opinion to whether the Veteran has a diagnosable headache disability.

For these reasons, the Board finds that a remand is required in order to provide the Veteran with a new VA examination.  

This matter is REMANDED for the following action:

Provide the Veteran with the appropriate VA examination regarding his headaches.  The Veteran's claims file must be made available to the examiner and the examiner must specify in the report that it was contemporaneously reviewed.  All pertinent symptomatology and findings must be reported.  Any indicated special diagnostic tests that are deemed necessary for an accurate assessment must be conducted, to include, but not limited to imaging, such as x-rays. 

The examiners must then provide an opinion as to whether it is at least as likely as not (a 50 percent probability or greater) that any headache disability or disability manifested by headaches was/were incurred in or due to his active duty. 

The examiner MUST consider and discuss the Veteran's report of in-service events (including the motor vehicle accident) and symptoms, as well as the onset and course of lay observable symptoms, such as pain. 

All rendered opinions must be accompanied by a thorough rationale.

 

 

T. REYNOLDS

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans' Appeals

Attorney for the Board	Sean G. Pflugner, 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.