The Board has granted service connection for bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, finding that the Veteran's preexisting hearing loss worsened during service and is therefore considered aggravated.
The deciding factor: The Board found that there was significant noise exposure during service, lay evidence of worsening hearing symptoms, and measurable threshold shifts in multiple Hertz ranges. The VA examiner improperly relied on purported improvement without addressing evidence of worsening.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral sensorineural hearing loss
- How they argued it
- Aggravation of a pre-existing condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 5, 2022
- Citation
- 22056572
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 22056572.
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 Veteran's initial claim for service-connected bilateral sensorineural hearing loss was denied, and the rating assigned prior to September 12, 2024, is noncompensable.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, tinnitus, thoracolumbar levoscoliosis with advanced multilevel DDD and facet arthropathy (low back disability), and cervical spine disability to include cervicalgia (neck disability) due to a lack of VA examination records and an incomplete review of service treatment records.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's service connection claims for hypertension, bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, GERD, Barrett's esophagus, and arrhythmia are remanded due to pre-decisional errors in obtaining necessary medical opinions.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claim for service connection for hearing loss is being remanded due to pre-decisional duty-to-assist errors related to his Reserve component service.
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