The Board has remanded the case for additional development, including obtaining updated treatment records and scheduling a VA examination to determine the etiology of any current right ear hearing loss and the severity of the service-connected left ear hearing loss.
The deciding factor: The Veteran's attorney requested that the appeal be remanded due to procedural issues related to the August 2006 VA examiner's report, which did not consider Hensley v. Brown (1993) regarding normal hearing levels and the increase in right ear hearing loss from induction until separation.
- Claimed conditions
- right ear hearing loss disability, left ear hearing loss disability
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 2, 2010
- Citation
- 1012507
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 1012507.
What this means for you
A remand is not a loss. The Board sent the case back for more development — often a new exam or missing records — before making a final decision. Many remands later end in a grant, and the decision spells out exactly what the Board wanted to see.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Partly granted
The Board granted a 20 percent disability rating for left and right lower extremity radiculopathy from April 3, 2023 onward, but denied higher ratings prior to that date. Service connection was also granted for alcohol use disorder as secondary to PTSD with traumatic brain injury.
- Partly granted
The Board denied service connection for a left ear hearing loss disability and remanded the issue of entitlement to service connection for a right ear hearing loss disability.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for a left ear hearing loss disability, resolving reasonable doubt in the Veteran's favor and finding that it is at least as likely as not related to in-service noise exposure.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for right ear hearing loss disability but denied it for left ear hearing loss disability.
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