Citation Nr: 19123003
Decision Date: 03/27/19	Archive Date: 03/27/19

DOCKET NO. 16-06 226
DATE:	March 27, 2019

ORDER

Entitlement to service connection for bilateral hearing loss is granted.

FINDING OF FACT

The evidence is in equipoise as to whether the Veteran’s bilateral hearing loss disability is related to his military service.

CONCLUSION OF LAW

Resolving reasonable doubt in the Veteran’s favor, the criteria for service connection for a bilateral hearing loss disability are met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131, 5107(b); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303(a), 3.385.

REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION

Service connection may be granted for a disability resulting from disease or injury incurred in or aggravated by service.  38 U.S.C. § 1110; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(a).  Service connection requires competent evidence showing: (1) the existence of a present disability; (2) in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury; and (3) a causal relationship between the present disability and the disease or injury incurred or aggravated during service.  Shedden v. Principi, 381 F.3d 1163, 1167 (Fed. Cir. 2004); see also Caluza v. Brown, 7 Vet. App. 498 (1995).

The Veteran has a current diagnosis of bilateral hearing loss as confirmed by a January 2013 VA audiological examination; therefore, the first element of service connection is met.  His military occupational specialty (M.O.S.) was as a combat support group member; therefore, exposure to acoustic trauma is conceded and the second element of service connection is met.  

The question remains whether there is a nexus, or link, between the current shown bilateral hearing loss and the Veteran’s military service.  Based on the evidence, to include the Veteran’s March 2019 Board hearing testimony before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge (VLJ), and a January 2013 VA negative nexus medical opinion, and resolving reasonable doubt in the Veteran’s favor, the Board finds such a nexus.  

In this regard, the Veteran has continuously asserted that his bilateral hearing loss is the result of acoustic trauma sustained in active service.  Specifically, the Veteran reported hazardous noise exposure on a daily basis; the same noise exposure that caused his service-connected tinnitus. Although a January 2013 VA examiner opined that bilateral hearing loss was not caused by military service because hearing at entrance and separation was within normal limits and there was no significant threshold shift between the entrance and separation audiological examinations, this rationale is inadequate because the examiner did not consider the Veteran’s report of continuity of symptomatology, and the opinion cannot serve as a basis for denial of entitlement to service connection.    

Weighing the evidence - the Veteran’s credible assertions of in-service acoustic trauma; the conceded noise exposure; his credible statements of continuity of symptomatology; and the fact that the only medical opinion of record, while against the claim, is inadequate because it relies on a lack of a significant threshold shift in support of its conclusion, the Board resolves all doubt in the Veteran’s favor and finds that his bilateral hearing loss was incurred and service and grants the claim.

 

JOHN Z. JONES

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans’ Appeals

ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	A. Hemphill, Associate Counsel