The Board denied the veteran's claim for service connection for bilateral hearing loss as it was not shown to have manifested in service or within one year thereafter and is not otherwise causally or etiologically related to his military service.
The deciding factor: The May 2022 VA examiner opined that the Veteran's current bilateral hearing loss is not at least as likely as not caused by or a result of his military service, considering the absence of hearing loss during service and the lack of significant threshold shifts in service. The examiner also noted that there is no specific basis for delayed onset noise-induced hearing loss.
- Claimed conditions
- Bilateral hearing loss
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 2, 2024
- Citation
- A24062971
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
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 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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for service connection for bilateral hearing loss to obtain an addendum opinion addressing the Veteran's lay statements regarding in-service acoustic trauma and a rocket blast injury.
- Partly granted
The Board granted an effective date of May 17, 2019, for a 70 percent disability rating for PTSD but denied earlier effective dates for service connection for bilateral hearing loss and tinnitus.
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