The Board denied the claim of service connection for bilateral hearing loss, finding that it is not shown to be causally or etiologically related to any disease, injury, or incident during service and did not manifest within one year of separation from service.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner could not provide a medical opinion regarding the etiology of the Veteran's hearing loss without resorting to speculation due to lack of audiogram results at the time of his separation from service.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral hearing loss
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 29, 2020
- Citation
- 20007720
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.
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- Denied
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- Granted
The Board granted service connection for bilateral hearing loss, finding it at least as likely as not related to the Veteran's in-service noise exposure.
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