Citation Nr: 18142896 Decision Date: 10/17/18 Archive Date: 10/17/18 DOCKET NO. 16-08 407 DATE: October 17, 2018 ORDER Service connection for hearing loss is granted. FINDING OF FACT The Veteran’s hearing loss began during active service. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for service connection for hearing loss are met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1111, 5107(b); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.159, 3.303, 3.307, 3.309(a), 3.385. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty from October 1973 to September 1974. The appeal stems from a March 2014 rating decision. 1. Service connection for hearing loss Neither the Veteran nor his representative have raised any issues or concerns with the duty to notify or duty to assist. See Scott v. McDonald, 789 F.3d 1375, 1381 (Fed. Cir. 2015) (holding that “the Board’s obligation to read filings in a liberal manner does not require the Board. . .to search the record and address procedural arguments when the Veteran fails to raise them before the Board.”); Dickens v. McDonald, 814 F.3d 1359, 1361 (applying Scott’s duty to assist argument). The Board observes that attempts were made to obtain the Veteran’s service treatment records (STRs), and notice of this attempt was provided to the Veteran in June 2013 letters. Since VA has not been able to obtain the Veteran’s STRs, the Board has a heightened duty to explain its findings and conclusions and to consider benefit of the doubt and corroborative testimony such as buddy statements. O’Hare v. Derwinski, 1 Vet. App. 365 (1991). 38 U.S.C. § 5107. The Veteran seeks service connection for hearing loss and specifically alleges that the hearing loss started while he was aboard the USS Sierra where he was exposed to noise from welding, metal pressing, compressors and bulkhead work as he performed his personnel duties in every area of the ship. Service connection will be granted if the evidence demonstrates that a current disability resulted from an injury or disease incurred in or aggravated by active service, even if the disability was initially diagnosed after service. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303. Certain chronic diseases will be presumed related to service if they were noted as chronic in service; or, if they manifested to a compensable degree within a presumptive period following separation from service; or, if continuity of the same symptomatology has existed since service, with no intervening cause. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1101, 1112, 1113, 1137; Walker v. Shinseki, 708 F.3d 1331, 1338 (Fed. Cir. 2012); Fountain v. McDonald, 27 Vet. App. 258 (2015); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.303(b), 3.307, 3.309(a). Service connection for impaired hearing shall only be established when hearing status as determined by audiometric testing meets specified puretone and speech recognition criteria. Audiometric testing measures puretone threshold hearing levels (in decibels) over a range of frequencies (in Hertz). See Hensley v. Brown, 5 Vet. App. 155, 158 (1993). The determination of whether a Veteran has a disability based on hearing loss is governed by 38 C.F.R. § 3.385. For the purposes of applying the laws administered by VA, impaired hearing will be considered to be a disability when the auditory threshold in any of the frequencies 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, or 4000 Hertz is 40 decibels or greater; or when the auditory thresholds for at least three of the frequencies 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, or 4000 Hertz are 26 decibels or greater; or when speech recognition scores using the Maryland CNC Test are less than 94 percent. 38 C.F.R. § 3.385. The Veteran was afforded a VA examination from an audiologist for hearing loss and tinnitus in March 2014. This examination reflects thresholds of 40 decibels or greater in every threshold of the right ear and in the 3000 and 4000 Hertz frequencies of the left ear. Thus the Veteran has a current disability under 38 C.F.R. § 3.385. The audiologist opined that the Veteran has hearing loss but it is not at least as likely as not caused by or a result of an event in military service. The audiologist rationalizes this due to their belief that that Veteran reported the onset of hearing loss starting several years after military service. However, this conflicts with the other evidence provided where the Veteran states that his hearing loss started while in service. Specifically, in his notice of disagreement and at the August 2016 Board hearing, the Veteran claims that he informed the audiologist that his hearing loss started while in service and had gotten progressively worse over the years. Furthermore, the Veteran has been consistent with his statements claiming hearing loss started in early 1974, as shown in the Veteran’s December 2011 application for compensation. The Veteran served in a ship and was often in the presence of heavy machinery and maintenance work. The Veteran was granted service connection and a 10 percent disability rating for tinnitus effective December 2011 due to the ringing in his ears that stared while in service. The Veteran began his claim for service connected hearing loss in the same December 2011 application for compensation where he applied for service connected tinnitus. In this application, both issues were claimed to have begun in early 1974. Since this claim, the Veteran has had examinations which show he has hearing loss for VA purposes and has continued to testify to the continuity of his symptoms. Hearing loss is a chronic disease subject to presumptive service connection as an organic disease of the nervous system. 38 C.F.R. § 3.309. The Veteran competently testified to the continuity of his symptoms and his lack of further exposure to any potential cause of acoustic trauma after being discharged from service. The consistency of the Veteran’s statements over the years, as well as the granting of service connection for another acoustic trauma, is enough to place the evidence in equipoise and to grant service connection for hearing loss. H. SEESEL Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD E. Iannone, Law Clerk