The Board remands the claims for service connection for various disabilities, including bilateral hearing loss, sleep apnea, shortness of breath, headaches, and shoulder, neck, lumbar spine, and leg disabilities, to provide the Veteran with additional VA examinations.
The deciding factor: Remand is necessary due to insufficient evidence regarding the etiology of the claimed conditions, particularly in relation to in-service noise exposure for hearing loss and potential Persian Gulf War-related symptoms for other conditions.
- Claimed conditions
- Bilateral hearing loss, Sleep apnea, Shortness of breath, Headaches, Left shoulder disability, Right shoulder disability, Neck disability, Lumbar spine disability, Left leg disability, Right leg disability
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 10, 2023
- Citation
- 23001677
What this means for you
A remand is not a loss. The Board sent the case back for more development — often a new exam or missing records — before making a final decision. Many remands later end in a grant, and the decision spells out exactly what the Board wanted to see.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for chronic headaches, CFS, dermatosis, bilateral RLS, a lumbar spine disability, and sleep apnea but denied a compensable evaluation for allergic rhinitis.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's appeal for increased ratings for right and left shoulder disabilities, as the evidence did not support a higher rating under applicable criteria.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claim for service connection for bilateral hearing loss, as there was no evidence of a current disability in the right ear and insufficient evidence to establish a nexus between the left ear hearing loss and service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the matter for a medical clarification regarding whether the Veteran's service-connected epilepsy has aggravated his bilateral hearing loss.
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