The Veteran's right knee strain is granted as secondary to service-connected bilateral shin splints.,Service connection for bilateral hearing loss is denied.,Right ankle strain and residuals of right ankle fracture with surgical repair are denied as secondary to two service-connected right foot disabilities.,Service connection for sleep apnea is denied.
The deciding factor: The current right knee strain is related to the service-connected bilateral shin splints, resolving in favor of the Veteran.,There is no evidence linking the current hearing loss to military service.,The current right ankle disabilities are not causally or etiologically related to service and were not caused by the two service-connected right foot disabilities.,Sleep apnea did not begin during service and is not linked to any service-connected conditions.
- Claimed conditions
- Bilateral hearing loss, Right ankle strain and residuals of right ankle fracture with surgical repair (claimed as right ankle pain and weakness), Right knee strain, Sleep apnea
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 18, 2019
- Citation
- A19000205
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,200 · Granted: 43% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
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 A19000205.
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.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection of a right knee disability, finding that there was no nexus between his current condition and active duty service.
- Granted
The Veteran's claim for a low back disorder was reopened, and his claims for increased ratings of bilateral knee instability were granted. His hearing loss claim was denied.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for sleep apnea and acquired psychiatric disorder (including PTSD) due to insufficient evidence of record. The Veteran is required to undergo VA examinations to determine if his conditions are related to service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's appeals of the initial ratings for his service-connected chronic cough and bilateral hearing loss are remanded due to procedural errors in the evidentiary record.
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