The Veteran's claim of service connection for bilateral sensorineural hearing loss was denied due to lack of evidence linking the condition to his in-service noise exposure. However, the claim for tinnitus was granted as it manifested within one year of discharge from service.
The deciding factor: The November 2019 VA examiner found that the Veteran's tinnitus first manifested within a year of discharge and provided no evidence to contradict the Veteran's reports of significant post-service noise exposure.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, bilateral tinnitus
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 0%
- Decision date
- December 8, 2020
- Citation
- A20018141
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.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for an earlier effective date, service connection for bilateral hearing loss, and service connection for insomnia.
- Dismissed
The Veteran withdrew the appeal for service connection for bilateral tinnitus and bilateral hearing loss, resulting in their dismissal.
- Partly granted
The Board denied service connection for hypertension and remanded the claims for bilateral tinnitus, right knee osteoarthritis, and left knee osteoarthritis due to inadequate medical evidence.
- Partly granted
The Board dismissed the claim for service connection for headaches and remanded claims for service connection for various other conditions, including open angle glaucoma, sensorineural hearing loss, asthma, heart disease, bladder cancer, and squamous cell carcinoma.
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