The Board granted service connection for bilateral hearing loss and tinnitus, finding that the Veteran's pre-existing hearing loss was aggravated by his active duty service. The right shoulder and right hand claims were remanded.
The deciding factor: The evidence of record supports a finding of in-service aggravation of the Veteran's pre-existing bilateral hearing loss, while the VA medical opinion for tinnitus is found to be inadequate due to an inaccurate factual premise.
- Claimed conditions
- Bilateral hearing loss, Tinnitus
- How they argued it
- Aggravation of a pre-existing condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 5, 2025
- Citation
- A25049651
What this means for you
A partial grant means some issues were granted while others were denied or remanded — common in multi-issue claims. Look at which issues went which way, and how each was argued.
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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