Service Connection requires a requisite Duty Period: 38CFR 3.6…includes active duty, any period of active duty for training during which…was disabled or died from a disease or injury incurred or aggravated in line of duty, or any period of inactive duty for training during which…was disabled or died from an injury…
There are conditions / disabilities which cannot be service connected:38 CFR 3.303(c)
Congenital conditions
Hereditary conditions
Constitutional abnormalities
Service Connection requires three components: 38 CFR 3.303, 3.304
1.Current disability
2.In service event
3. Causal link (nexus) between 1 & 2
Evidence for ConsiderationService medical recordsMilitary personnel fileUnit recordsSecondary military recordsPersonal recordsLay (buddy) statementsPost service medical recordsPre service medical records
Direct Service Connection
38 CFR 3.303(a) The facts establish that a particular injury or disease resulting in disability was incurred coincident with service in the Armed Forces. Each disabling condition shown by a veteran’s service records or for which he seeks service connection must be considered on the basis of the places, types and circumstances of his service as shown by service records, official history of each unit in which he served, his medical records, and all pertinent medical and lay evidence.
Combat: 38CFR 3.304(d)Satisfactory lay or other evidence that an injury or disease was incurred or aggravated in combat will be accepted as sufficient proof of service connection if the evidence is consistent with the circumstances, conditions or hardships of such service…
Line of Duty:38CFR 3.30138CFR 3.1(m)(n)…service connection may be granted only when a disability or cause of death was incurred or aggravated in line of duty, and not the result of the veteran’s own willful misconduct…..
Direct Service Connection Exclusions
Venereal disease (3.301(c1))
Alcohol use (3.301(c2)
Drug use (3.301(c3))
Chronicity & Continuity:38CFR 3.303(b)…chronic disease shown as such in service (or presumptive period) so as to permit a finding of service connection, subsequent manifestations of the same chronic disease at any later date, however remote, are service connected….
Direct Service Connection
Post Traumatic Disorder (PTSD)
38CFR 3.304 (f) (three legs)
1. Verification of in-service Stressor
2. Diagnosis by Competent Medical Authority
3. Medical evidence of a link between symptoms and verified stressor
Presumptive Service Connection
Chronic Disease
38CFR 3.307 (a), 3.309, 3.311, 3.317, 3.318
Tropical Disease
Former Prisoner of War
Herbicide Exposure
Radiation Exposure
Persian Gulf War – Undiagnosed illness
ALS
Presumptive Service Connection
38CFR 3.307 (a)(3), (c)
Chronic Disease
38CFR 3.309 (a)
EXAMPLE
Tumors, malignant
Hypertension
Organic diseases of nervous system
Psychoses
Presumptive Service Connection
Tropical Disease
38CFR 3.307 (a)(4)
38CFR 3.309 (b)
EXAMPLE
Malaria
Leishmaniasis
Former Prisoner of War
38CFR 3.304 (e)
Circumstances of the veteran’s confinement together with medical principles will be used in determining whether disability manifest subsequent to service is etiologically related to POW experience.
Presumptive Service Connection
Former Prisoner of War
38CFR 3.307 (a)(5)
38CFR 3.309 (c)
EXAMPLE
Psychosis or Anxiety State
AHD, HHD, MI, CHF, CVA
Post-traumatic osteoarthritis
Presumptive Service Connection
Radiation Exposure
38CFR 3.309 (d), 3.311
Verified participation in an event or verification of exposure (occupational)
Leukemia (other than CLL)
Lymphomas (other than Hodgkin’s)
Multiple Myeloma
List of Cancers
Presumptive Service Connection
Herbicide Exposure
38CFR 3.309 (e)
Service in Vietnam or other specific locations or proof of exposure
Presumptive Service Connection
Persian Gulf War – Undiagnosed illness
38CFR 3.317
Signs or symptoms which may be manifestations of undiagnosed illness or medically unexplained chronic multi-symptom illness during the Persian Gulf War or to a degree of 10% or more not later than December 31, 2011.
Secondary Service Connection
38CFR 3.310 (a), (c)
Disability which is proximately due to or the result of a service connected disease or injury shall be service connected.
Conditions, disabilities, deemed to be the consequence of treatment for a service connected disability.
Cardiovascular disease in a veteran with a single AK amputation or with bilateral BK amputations.
Service Connection by Aggravation
Pre-existing Condition
38CFR 3.306(a)
A preexisting injury or disease will be considered to have been aggravated by active service where there is an increase in disability during such service unless there is a specific finding that the increase in disability is due to the natural progress of the disease.
Service Connection by Aggravation
Non SC condition
38CFR 3.306, 3.310 (b), 3.222
Any increase in severity of a non service connected disease or injury that is proximately due to or the result of a service connected disease or injury and not due to natural progress will be service connected.
Service Connection – Other Methods
VA Medical Treatment
38CFR 3.358, 3.800
Disability caused by hospital care or medical / surgical treatment.
Disability caused by carelessness, negligence, lack of proper skill, error in judgment.
Event not foreseeable.
Evaluations - Ratings
38CFR 4.1
The rating schedule is a guide in the evaluation of disability resulting from disease or injury as a result of military service. The percentage ratings represent the average impairment in earning capacity in civil occupations.
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