The Veteran's claims for service connection for gastrointestinal disorder, lumbar spine disorder, bilateral hearing loss, tinnitus, sleep apnea, and migraine headaches have been denied as secondary to his service-connected knee disability. The claim for broken tooth and residual abscess in the mouth for compensation purposes has also been denied.,Service connection is not granted for any of the conditions listed above due to lack of evidence linking them to service or a service-connected condition.
The deciding factor: The medical opinions provided do not support a finding that any of the claimed conditions are related to service or a service-connected disability. The Veteran's claims are denied as secondary to his service-connected knee disability.
- Claimed conditions
- Bilateral Hearing Loss, Broken Tooth and Residual Abscess in the Mouth for Compensation Purposes, Gastrointestinal Disorder (Barrett's Esophagus), Lumbar Spine Disorder, Migraine Headaches, Sleep Apnea, Tinnitus
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 17, 2019
- Citation
- 19138596
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 882 · Granted: 17% (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 19138596.
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.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for bilateral hearing loss and tinnitus, finding that the Veteran's current conditions are not related to his military service.
- 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 Board denied service connection for sleep apnea, finding that the evidence did not support a link between the condition and service.
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