Citation Nr: 18140299 Decision Date: 10/02/18 Archive Date: 10/02/18 DOCKET NO. 16-30 188 DATE: October 2, 2018 ORDER Entitlement to service connection for sleep apnea is granted. FINDING OF FACT The Veteran’s sleep apnea had its onset in service and has continued since service. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for entitlement to service connection for sleep apnea have been met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 5103, 5103A, 5107 (2012); 38 C.F.R. § 3.102, 3.303 (2017). REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty from September 1993 to September 2013. This matter came before the Board of Veterans Appeals (Board) on appeal from a September 2014 rating decision of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). Entitlement to service connection for sleep apnea The Board concludes that the Veteran’s sleep apnea began during service and has been continuous since service and that service connection is therefore warranted. Service connection may be established for any disease or disability diagnosed after discharge, when all the evidence, including that pertinent to service, establishes the disability was incurred in service. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(d). VA is required to give due consideration to all pertinent medical and lay evidence in evaluating a claim for disability benefits. 38 U.S.C. § 1154(a). Lay testimony is competent to prove that a claimant exhibited certain lay-observable symptoms and the time that those symptoms appeared. Layno v. Brown, 6 Vet. App. 465, 470 (1994). Lay evidence can be competent and sufficient to establish a diagnosis of a condition when lay testimony describing symptoms at the time supports a later diagnosis by a medical professional. Jandreau v. Nicholson, 492 F.3d 1372, 1377 (Fed. Cir. 2007). Lay evidence cannot be determined to be not credible merely because it is unaccompanied by contemporaneous medical evidence. Buchanan v. Nicholson, 451 F.3d 1331, 1336–37 (Fed. Cir. 2006). Private treatment records document a diagnosis of sleep apnea and that the Veteran was evaluated in July 2014 for sleep disordered breathing and reported snoring, choking in his sleep, gasping for breath in sleep, waking feeling unrefreshed and tired and daytime somnolence. September 2014 VA treatment records document issuance of a CPAP machine. Service treatment records are silent for complaints or treatment for the disability. A November 2014 private opinion stated that the Veteran’s diagnosed sleep apnea more likely than not had its onset during the Veteran’s active duty. The rationale was that sleep apnea is generally present for many years prior to diagnosis and that the Veteran was diagnosed in August 2014, less than a year after his separation from service. The provider also noted the Veteran’s reports of loud snoring and chronic sleepiness in service as indications that his disability had its onset in service. The Board finds that the opinion is adequate for appellate review. There is no evidence that the provider was not competent or credible, and as the opinion is based on the Veteran’s statements, in-person examination and the examiners’ observations, the Board finds it is entitled to significant probative weight. Nieves-Rodriguez v. Peake, 22 Vet. App. 295, 302–05 (2008). The Veteran submitted a November 2014 statement that his sleep symptoms began in service and that was told he snored loudly while on active duty but could not get a sleep study done because he was stationed on ships and deployed in Bahrain and Kuwait. The Board notes that the Veteran is competent to report symptoms such as fatigue and sleep trouble and accords his statement significant probative weight. The Board therefore finds that all the competent medical evidence of record indicates that the Veteran’s sleep apnea had its onset in service. The Veteran’s lay testimony that his symptoms began in service is supported by the diagnosis of sleep apnea within a year of separation from service as well as by the November 2014 private medical opinion. The Board therefore finds that the evidence of record supports the conclusion that the Veteran’s obstructive sleep apnea began in service and has been continuous since service. Service connection is therefore warranted. 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303(d). E. I. VELEZ Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD A. Arnold, Associate Counsel