Citation Nr: 21001734 Decision Date: 01/11/21 Archive Date: 01/11/21 DOCKET NO. 16-53 914 DATE: January 11, 2021 ORDER Service connection for right ear hearing loss is granted. FINDING OF FACT The competent evidence supports a finding that the Veteran’s current right ear hearing loss for VA purposes is related to noise exposure in service. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for service connection for right ear hearing loss are met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.385. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty from August 1957 to October 1960. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) from a September 2015 rating decision. The Veteran testified at a Board videoconference hearing in March 2019. In October 2019, the Board issued a decision, where it denied service connection for right ear hearing loss. The Veteran appealed this determination to the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (Court). In August 2020, the Court granted a joint motion for remand, thereby vacating the October 2019 denial of service connection for right ear hearing loss and remanding the matter back to the Board. Service Connection Service connection will be granted for a disability resulting from a disease or injury incurred in or aggravated by service. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(a). Where a disease is first diagnosed after discharge, service connection will be granted when all of the evidence, including that pertinent to service, establishes it was incurred in active service. 38 U.S.C. § 1113(b); 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(d). Service connection requires 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 condition incurred or aggravated by service. Shedden v. Principi, 381 F.3d 1163, 1167 (Fed. Cir. 2004). A nexus between a current disability and an in-service injury or event may be established by evidence of continuity of symptomatology, if the condition is a chronic disease enumerated under 38 U.S.C. § 1101. Walker v. Shinseki, 708 F.3d 1331, 1338-40 (Fed. Cir. 2013). Sensorineural hearing loss and tinnitus are considered organic diseases of the nervous system, and as such are enumerated chronic diseases. See 38 U.S.C. §§ 1101, 1112; Memorandum, Characterization of High Frequency Sensorineural Hearing Loss, Under Secretary for Health, October 4, 1995; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.307, 3.309. When there is an approximate balance of positive and negative evidence regarding any material issue, or the evidence is in relative equipoise, all reasonable doubt will be resolved in favor of the claimant. 38 U.S.C. § 5107; 38 C.F.R. § 3.102. Service connection for right ear hearing loss is granted. The Veteran asserts that his hearing loss is related to his service as an aviation electronics technician, working on a flight line, where he was exposed to hazardous noise from propellers and jet engines. 03/17/2015, Statement in Support of Claim. His DD-214 confirms that he served as an aviation electronics technician in the Navy. The Veteran’s report of noise exposure in service are consistent with nature and circumstances of his service. 38 U.S.C. § 1154(a). As such, hazardous noise exposure during service is established as consistent with his service. Service treatment records reflect that the Veteran’s pre-induction and separation examinations included a whisper test but not an audiogram. Whisper tests have been shown to be an invalid indicator of high frequency hearing loss, which is common following loud noise exposure. As such, it is impossible to ascertain whether and to what extent the Veteran experienced a threshold shift in service. The auditory threshold for normal hearing is from 0 to 20 decibels, and higher threshold levels indicate some degree of hearing loss. Hensley v. Brown, 5 Vet. App. 155, 157 (1993). Impaired hearing is considered a disability for VA purposes when the auditory threshold in any of the frequencies 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, or 4000 Hertz is 40 decibels or greater; when the auditory thresholds for at least three of these frequencies 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. It is not necessary to meet these criteria for a hearing loss disability during service to warrant service connection. Ledford v. Derwinski, 3 Vet. App. 87 (1992). In this case, a September 2015 VA examination fails to show that the Veteran has a hearing loss disability for VA purposes in his right ear. Nevertheless, more recent evidence, specifically, a March 2018 audiogram (submitted by the Veteran) and a January 2020 VA examination, shows a current hearing loss disability. 05/02/2018, Medical Treatment Record - Government Facility; 01/04/2020, C&P Exam.   The Veteran has testified that he first noticed hearing problems within a year of that injury. Additionally, the Board, in its October 2019 decision, determined that it is at least as likely as not that the Veteran experienced a rupture of his left eardrum in service, possibly due to his hazardous noise exposure. Finally, the Board notes that service connection for left ear hearing loss and tinnitus is already in effect. Based on the foregoing, the Board finds that, with resolution of doubt in favor of the Veteran on this material issue, his right ear hearing loss is related to service. 38 U.S.C. § 5107(b); see Gilbert v. Derwinski, 1 Vet. App. 49, 53 (1990); see also Wise v. Shinseki, 26 Vet. App. 517, 531 (2014) (stating that the benefit of the doubt rule is a unique standard of proof, and “the nation, ‘in recognition of our debt to our veterans,’ has ‘taken upon itself the risk of error’ in awarding such benefits”). Paul Sorisio Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals Attorney for the Board P. López The Board’s decision in this case is binding only with respect to the instant matter decided. This decision is not precedential and does not establish VA policies or interpretations of general applicability. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1303.