The Board has granted service connection for bilateral sensorineural hearing loss and readjudicated the low back disability claim. The Veteran's current degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine is found to be related to his service-connected left great toe and ankle disability.,Service connection for degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine is granted as secondary to a service-connected condition (left great toe and ankle).
The deciding factor: The Veteran's current bilateral sensorineural hearing loss is found to be related to in-service noise exposure.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, low back disability, degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine, left knee arthralgia
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 25, 2024
- Citation
- A24013812
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 A24013812.
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 found that remand is needed for the Veteran's claims due to duty to assist errors, including clarification of periods of service and obtaining relevant records. The Veteran will be afforded new medical examinations for each claimed disability.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has denied service connection for bilateral hearing loss and remanded the claims of right shoulder disability and low back disability due to insufficient evidence.
- Granted
The Veteran's claim for service connection of a low back disability was granted with an effective date of January 9, 2018. The Board accepted her November 21, 2019 VA Form 20-0996 as a valid opt-in of the April 2019 SOC into the modernized review system.
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