The Board has determined that the Veteran's bilateral hearing loss is not related to his military service, and therefore denied his claim for service connection.
The deciding factor: The VA audiologist found no evidence of a nexus between the Veteran's current hearing loss and his in-service noise exposure due to combat duty. The examiner noted that the Veteran had normal hearing at entry into service and did not report any hearing problems during separation, and he also reported noticing his hearing loss only recently.
- Claimed conditions
- Bilateral Hearing Loss, Heart Condition (to include as due to herbicide exposure), Hypertension (secondary to PTSD), Foot Blisters, Gastrointestinal Disability (ulcers and GERD)
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 13, 2018
- Citation
- 1814483
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 1814483.
What this means for you
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What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Veteran's bilateral hearing loss is granted as service-connected. The claims for alcohol abuse and psychiatric disorder are remanded for additional development, including a VA examination to determine the nature and etiology of these conditions.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to a need for a new VA examination to assess the current severity of the Veteran's bilateral hearing loss. The issue remains under direct service connection theory.
- Denied
The Veteran's hearing loss was rated at 30 percent, the highest non-compensable rating available. The Board found that his hearing loss did not warrant a higher rating based on VA examinations and medical records.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for bilateral hearing loss, finding that there was no evidence of a nexus between his current hearing loss and his active service. The Board noted that while he had complaints of earaches in service, these did not indicate a current disability.
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