Citation Nr: 1801604	
Decision Date: 01/10/18    Archive Date: 01/23/18

DOCKET NO.  14-12 877	)	DATE
	)
	)

On appeal from the
Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office in St. Petersburg, Florida


THE ISSUE

Entitlement to service connection for tinnitus.  


REPRESENTATION

Appellant represented by:	The American Legion


WITNESS AT HEARING ON APPEAL

Appellant


ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD

N. Snyder, Counsel


INTRODUCTION

The Veteran had active service from October 1968 to June 1970.  

This matter came before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) from a September 2011 decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO).  A hearing before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge was held at the RO in November 2017.  The hearing transcript has been associated with the claims file.

This appeal has been advanced on the Board's docket pursuant to 38 C.F.R. § 20.900(c) (2017).  38 U.S.C. § 7107(a)(2) (West 2012).


FINDING OF FACT

The tinnitus is due to the service-connected hearing loss.  


CONCLUSION OF LAW

The criteria for service connection for tinnitus have been met.  38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 5107 (West 2012); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.303, 3.310 (2017).  


REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION

Service connection may be established for disability resulting from disease or injury incurred in or aggravated by active military, naval, or air service.  38 U.S.C. § 1110; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303.  

Service connection may be granted for any disease initially diagnosed after discharge, when all the evidence, including that pertinent to service, establishes the disease was incurred in service.  38 C.F.R. § 3.303(d).   

A disability which is proximately due to or the result of a service-connected disease or injury shall be service connected.  38 C.F.R. § 3.310(a).  Any increase in severity of a nonservice-connected disease or injury that is proximately due to or the result of a service-connected disease or injury, and not due to the natural progress of the nonservice-connected disease, will be service connected.  However, VA will not concede that a nonservice-connected disease or injury was aggravated by a service-connected disease or injury unless the baseline level of severity of the nonservice-connected disease or injury is established by medical evidence created before the onset of aggravation or by the earliest medical evidence created at any time between the onset of aggravation and the receipt of medical evidence establishing the current level of severity of the nonservice-connected disease or injury.  38 C.F.R. § 3.310(b).

After consideration of the evidence, the Board finds service connection is warranted for tinnitus.  The record documents the Veteran's competent history of tinnitus of unknown duration.  The record also documents the 2011 VA examiner's determination that the tinnitus was a symptom of the Veteran's hearing loss, which has been linked to in-service noise exposure.  The record is absent medical evidence linking the tinnitus to a distinct etiology.  Resolving all doubt in favor of the Veteran, the Board finds service connection is warranted for tinnitus as secondary to the service-connected hearing loss.  


ORDER

Service connection for tinnitus is granted.  



____________________________________________
T. REYNOLDS
Veterans Law Judge, Board of Veterans' Appeals



Department of Veterans Affairs