The Veteran's claims for bilateral hearing loss, right ankle disability, and lumbar spine disability have been denied. The Board has remanded the claims for service connection for acquired psychiatric disorder (including PTSD and unspecified depressive disorder with anxious distress), as well as cold weather injury residuals of the hands and knees.,Service connection is not granted for bilateral hearing loss due to lack of in-service diagnosis or treatment, no evidence of continuity of symptomatology, and insufficient medical opinion linking current disability to service.

The deciding factor: The Veteran's STRs are silent on complaints or diagnoses related to hearing loss. The VA examiner found that the Veteran did not have a significant threshold shift beyond normal measurement variability while in service, and thus concluded that his current bilateral hearing loss is less likely caused by noise exposure during service.

Claimed conditions

bilateral hearing loss, right ankle disability, lumbar spine disability, acquired psychiatric disorder (including PTSD and unspecified depressive disorder with anxious distress), right hand cold weather injury residuals, including Raynaud's syndrome, left hand cold weather injury residuals, including Raynaud's syndrome, right knee cold weather injury residuals, including Raynaud's syndrome, left knee cold weather injury residuals, including Raynaud's syndrome

How they argued it

Direct service connection

Exposure basis

None

Rating assigned

None in this decision

Decision date

February 11, 2026

Citation

A26012713

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 A26012713.