The Board denied service connection for bilateral hearing loss, right wrist disorder, and left wrist disorder as there was no current diagnosis of these conditions during the pendency of the claim or recent to the filing of the claim.
The deciding factor: The October 2023 VA examination did not show bilateral hearing loss for VA purposes. The Veteran's service treatment records are negative for any complaints, treatments, or diagnoses related to a wrist condition and the VA examiner opined that there is no current diagnosis of a right wrist disorder and/or left wrist disorder.
- Claimed conditions
- Bilateral hearing loss, Right wrist disorder, Left wrist disorder
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 20, 2025
- Citation
- A25026130
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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