The Board has denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for bilateral hearing loss, finding that there is no evidence of a nexus between his current hearing loss and his military service.,The Board has remanded the issue of service connection for asthma (shortness of breath), as additional development is needed to determine if the Veteran's condition was caused by or related to his active duty.
The deciding factor: The Veteran's STRs showed no significant shift in hearing during service, and his current bilateral hearing loss was not noted until after separation from service. The VA examiner found that there was no evidence of a threshold shift and concluded that the Veteran’s hearing loss is not related to military noise exposure.,The Veteran contends that his asthma (shortness of breath) was caused by an in-service sea dye marker explosion, but additional development is needed to verify this claim.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral hearing loss, asthma
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 22, 2019
- Citation
- 19180158
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,820 · Granted: 26% (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 19180158.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to insufficient evidence regarding the Veteran's bilateral hearing loss claim, specifically needing an addendum opinion from a VA examiner. The Veteran will be asked to provide any missing records and former employers' information.
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