The Veteran's claims for service connection for various conditions, including those related to undiagnosed illnesses from Southwest Asia service, have been denied as the evidence does not support a finding of qualifying chronic disability due to an undiagnosed illness.
The deciding factor: The medical records do not provide objective indications of chronic disability manifested by an undiagnosed illness for any of the claimed conditions.
- Claimed conditions
- left thumb De Quervain’s tendonitis, right thumb De Quervain’s tendonitis, lower back pain, left knee crepitus, right knee crepitus, bilateral hearing loss, tinnitus, sleep apnea, hypertension, bowel habit changes (IBS), erectile dysfunction, diabetes mellitus, type 2, migraine headaches, short term memory loss
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 24, 2019
- Citation
- 19149063
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,030 · 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 19149063.
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeal for service connection of bilateral hearing loss and a ruptured right ear drum was dismissed due to the death of the Veteran.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for service connection for hypertension and peripheral neuropathy of the bilateral upper and lower extremities due to insufficient medical opinions regarding their etiology.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's claim for an earlier effective date for diabetes mellitus type II with erectile dysfunction was denied as the evidence did not show that he had been diagnosed and manifested to at least a 10 percent disability rating on or prior to May 8, 2001.
- Denied
The Board found that the Veteran's bilateral hearing loss was noted upon entry into active duty service and did not increase in severity during service. Therefore, it denied his claim for service connection.
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