The Board granted service connection for bilateral hearing loss and tinnitus, finding that the evidence supports a link between these conditions and the Veteran's in-service noise exposure.
The deciding factor: The lay evidence supporting the onset of symptoms during service and the documented threshold shift in hearing acuity weighed heavily in favor of the claims, leading to an approximate balance of evidence for both conditions.
- Claimed conditions
- Bilateral hearing loss, Tinnitus
- How they argued it
- Reopened with new and material evidence
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 100%
- Decision date
- April 10, 2025
- Citation
- A25033392
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 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.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for bilateral hearing loss and tinnitus, finding that the Veteran's conditions are related to in-service noise exposure.
- 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.
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