The Board has granted the Veteran's claim of service connection for degenerative arthritis of the lumbar spine as secondary to his service-connected right knee disability, but denied his claim for bilateral hearing loss.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner opined that the Veteran’s low back disability was aggravated by his service-connected right knee disability, warranting secondary service connection. However, there is no evidence of current hearing loss in either ear meeting VA criteria for a disability.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative arthritis of the lumbar spine, Bilateral hearing loss
- How they argued it
- Aggravation of a pre-existing condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 19, 2019
- Citation
- 19130818
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 matter for a medical clarification regarding whether the Veteran's service-connected epilepsy has aggravated his bilateral hearing loss.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for service connection for bilateral hearing loss to obtain an addendum opinion addressing the Veteran's lay statements regarding in-service acoustic trauma and a rocket blast injury.
- Partly granted
The Board granted an effective date of May 17, 2019, for a 70 percent disability rating for PTSD but denied earlier effective dates for service connection for bilateral hearing loss and tinnitus.
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