The Board has reopened the Veteran's claims for service connection for bilateral hearing loss and a skin rash to include as due to Agent Orange exposure. The effective date of these decisions is not addressed in this decision.,Service connection for a right knee disability secondary to a left knee disability remains pending, but an earlier effective date prior to October 25, 2007, for the grant of service connection for a left knee disability has been denied.
The deciding factor: New and material evidence was submitted in support of the Veteran's claims for bilateral hearing loss and skin rash. The Board found that this evidence related to unestablished facts necessary to substantiate these claims.,The effective date for service connection for a left knee disability remains at October 25, 2007, as no earlier claim was received.
- Claimed conditions
- {"conditionName":"Bilateral Hearing Loss"}, {"conditionName":"Skin Rash (to include as due to Agent Orange exposure)"}
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 17, 2017
- Citation
- 1716641
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 1716641.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Veteran's appeal for service connection for tinnitus and the issues of whether new and material evidence has been received to reopen previously denied claims of entitlement to service connection for bilateral hearing loss and bilateral leg numbness have been withdrawn.,PTSD is currently rated at 30 percent, which is the maximum rating available under Diagnostic Code 9411. The Veteran's PTSD results in occupational and social impairment with deficiencies in most areas due to symptoms such as depressed mood, anxiety, panic attacks (weekly or less often), chronic sleep impairment, mild memory loss, flattened affect, circumstantial speech, difficulty understanding complex commands, impaired judgment, impaired abstract thinking, disturbances of motivation and mood, and difficulty establishing effective relationships.,The Veteran's service-connected residuals of gunshot wound to the right shoulder are currently rated at 30 percent under Diagnostic Code 5303.
- Denied
The Board found that the Veteran's current bilateral hearing loss did not begin during service or within one year of separation, and thus denied his claim for service connection.
- Denied
The Veteran's service connection claim for a cardiovascular disability, based on herbicide exposure during the Vietnam Era, was denied as there is no evidence of such exposure. The Board found that his current cardiovascular disability did not manifest in service or within one year thereafter and there is no competent evidence linking it to his military service.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for service connection for bilateral hearing loss is denied as there is no evidence of a current disability and the examiner found that his hearing loss was most likely age-related. The Veteran's diabetes mellitus and GERD are not related to military service.
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