The Veteran's bilateral hearing loss and tinnitus are granted service connection. The Veteran's hypertension is remanded for further examination, as the VA examiner did not address whether it was aggravated by PTSD or related to herbicide exposure. The Veteran's chronic kidney stones are also remanded for a medical opinion on their relationship to herbicide exposure.
The deciding factor: The decision grants service connection based on direct evidence of in-service injury and current disability, without the need for presumptive service connection due to Agent Orange exposure or other factors.
- Claimed conditions
- Bilateral hearing loss, Tinnitus, Hypertension, Chronic kidney stones
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 16, 2019
- Citation
- 19129132
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 for bilateral hearing loss, as there was no evidence of a current disability in the right ear and insufficient evidence to establish a nexus between the left ear hearing loss and service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection for diabetes mellitus type II and hypertension, to include as secondary to left orchiectomy, for further development in accordance with the PACT Act.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for bilateral hearing loss and tinnitus, finding that the Veteran's conditions are related to in-service noise exposure.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the matter for a medical clarification regarding whether the Veteran's service-connected epilepsy has aggravated his bilateral hearing loss.
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