The Board has determined that the Veteran's left ear hearing loss is service-connected due to aggravation of a pre-existing condition, and not due to an in-service injury or incident.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner found no significant threshold shift in the Veteran’s preexisting left ear hearing loss at the time of his military exit, but the Board found this insufficient to rebut the presumption of aggravation given the Veteran's sworn statements about his worsening symptoms and a positive nexus opinion.
- Claimed conditions
- left ear hearing loss (claimed as left ear injury)
- How they argued it
- Aggravation of a pre-existing condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 22, 2020
- Citation
- 20005197
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,316 · Granted: 43% (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 20005197.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the Veteran's claim for left ear hearing loss due to a lack of current evidence meeting VA disability standards and because he did not report for his scheduled VA examination. The case is now being sent back for further evaluation.
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The Veteran's right shoulder disability and migraines/chronic headaches are remanded for additional development due to insufficient opinions on the etiology of her conditions.
- Granted
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- Granted
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