BVA Case 190916-30775: PTSD

The rating of ten percent for right index finger scarring from July 31, 2006, to July 26, 2016, was not clearly erroneous, has already been restored, and since July 26, 2016, the right thumb and index finger scars are properly combined and a separate compensable rating for right index finger scarring is denied.

If evidence was submitted either (1) during the period after the AOJ issued the decision on appeal and prior to the Board hearing, or (2) more than 90 days following the hearing, the Board did not consider it in its decision.

A grant for service connection for a disability requires: (1) a present disability or persistent or recurrent symptoms of a disability; (2) an in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury; and (3) a causal relationship ("nexus") between the present disability and the in-service event, injury, or disease.

However, a disability, with no causal relationship ("nexus") to an in-service event can be considered service-connected by being proximately due to or aggravated by a service-connected disease or injury.

To establish secondary service connection there must be (1) evidence of a current disability; (2) evidence of a service-connected disability; and (3) competent evidence establishing a link ("nexus") between the service-connected disability and the current disability.

2006) ("[T]he Board cannot determine that lay evidence lacks credibility merely because it is unaccompanied by contemporaneous medical evidence").

The examiner noted that there was no sufficient evidence of a causative or permanently aggravated nexus between a right-hand injury, carpal tunnel syndrome or lateral epicondylitis and a shoulder strain condition.

When there is an approximate balance of positive and negative evidence regarding the merits of an issue material to the determination of the matter, the Veteran shall be afforded the benefit of the doubt and prevail upon the issue.