The Board has remanded the case due to inadequate medical opinions regarding whether the Veteran's pre-existing right ear hearing loss was aggravated by service. The examiner must address the significance of threshold shifts documented in STRs and determine if any increase in severity is clearly and unmistakably due to its natural progress.
The deciding factor: The Board found that an addendum opinion is needed to properly assess whether the Veteran's pre-existing right ear hearing loss was aggravated by service, considering the threshold shift documentation in his STRs.
- Claimed conditions
- sensorineural right ear hearing loss
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 17, 2024
- Citation
- 24016587
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 24016587.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for service connection for a back disability, sensorineural left ear hearing loss, and sensorineural right ear hearing loss due to incomplete information from VA examiners.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for left ear and right ear hearing loss, finding that the evidence did not establish a direct link between the Veteran's in-service noise exposure and his current hearing loss.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected disabilities, including coronary artery disease and PTSD, render him unable to secure or follow a substantially gainful occupation. The Board finds the evidence at least evenly balanced in favor of the Veteran's claim for TDIU.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings for his service-connected lumbar myositis, psychoneurosis and conversion hysteria, residuals of shrapnel wounds of the left thigh and pelvis with retained foreign bodies and scars, and residuals of shell fragment wounds of the right thigh and left leg. The veteran was also denied entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to service-connected disabilities.
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