The Veteran's bilateral hearing loss is granted as service-connected. The claims for thyroid condition, DM, congestive heart failure, and HTN are denied due to lack of in-service exposure or a nexus to service.
The deciding factor: Service connection was established for bilateral hearing loss based on acoustic trauma experienced during service. For the other conditions, there is no evidence of herbicide exposure, and the preponderance of the evidence does not support a direct relationship between these conditions and service.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral hearing loss, thyroid condition, diabetes mellitus type II (DM), congestive heart failure, hypertension
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- September 12, 2019
- Citation
- 19170376
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 19170376.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for bilateral hearing loss, migraine headaches, and PTSD due to additional development of records and examination.
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