Citation Nr: 21062071 Decision Date: 10/06/21 Archive Date: 10/06/21 DOCKET NO. 15-06 541 DATE: October 6, 2021 ORDER Entitlement to service connection for tinnitus is granted. FINDING OF FACT Resolving any reasonable doubt in the Veteran's favor, the evidence establishes that the Veteran currently has ringing in his ears that has manifested continuously since basic training. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for service connection for tinnitus have been met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1112, 5107(b); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.307(a), 3.309(a). REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served honorably, including active duty service from July 1991 to October 1991, from October 2001 to February 2002, and from November 2003 to January 2004, as well as National Guard service until May 2015. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from an August 2013 decision of a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). In November 2018, the Board remanded the claim for a VA medical opinion. As an initial matter, the Board notes that multiple service connection claims remanded by the Board's prior decision were granted in March 2021 and May 2021 rating decisions. Because the granting of service connection represented full relief for the claims, those issues are no longer before the Board. See Holland v. Gober, 10 Vet. App. 433, 436 (1997). The Board now adjudicates the remaining claim for service connection for tinnitus. Service connection may be established for disability resulting from personal injury suffered or disease contracted in the line of duty in the active military, naval, or air service. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303. Establishing service connection generally requires evidence of (1) a current disability, (2) an in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury, and (3) a nexus between the claimed in-service event, injury, or disease and the present injury or disease. Shedden v. Principi, 381 F.3d 1163, 1167 (Fed. Cir. 2004). Additionally, service connection may be presumptively granted for certain chronic diseases, including organic diseases of the nervous system, where the disease is present to a compensable degree within the first year after service or where the evidence shows a continuity of symptomatology since service. 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.303(b), 3.307, 3.309(a). Tinnitus is considered an organic disease of the nervous system. See Fountain v. McDonald, 27 Vet. App. 258, 273 (2015). Based on review of the evidence, the Board finds, resolving any reasonable doubt in the Veteran's favor, that service connection is warranted. The Veteran has reported at multiple points throughout the record that he currently has ringing in his ears, with medical diagnoses of recurrent tinnitus at VA examinations in 2013 and 2020. Tinnitus by definition is a symptom that a Veteran can observe with his own senses, and therefore the Veteran is competent to diagnose himself as having tinnitus. See DORLAND'S ILLUSTRATED MEDICAL DICTIONARY, 1914 (30th ed. 2003) (defining tinnitus as "a noise in the ears, such as ringing, buzzing, roaring, or clicking"); Charles v. Principi, 16 Vet. App. 370, 37475 (2002). Moreover, the Veteran has stated that the ringing has been present since his basic and advanced individual training. At a July 2018 Board hearing he testified that he was exposed to noise during weapons training and while working in an engine room during an annual training. He said that he reported the ringing once during service when he went to sick call. The Veteran has stated that while his tinnitus is not constant, it started in basic training, has manifested intermittently since then, sometimes affecting him for an entire day at a time. Resolving any reasonable doubt in the Veteran's favor, the Board finds sufficient competent evidence of continuing symptoms since service. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(b). The Board notes that a December 2020 VA opinion offered that a connection to service was less likely than not; however, this opinion did not discuss the Veteran's competent statements about the sources of his noise exposure and his statements about continuing tinnitus since his earliest period of active duty service. (Continued on the next page) Given the evidence that the Veteran's current tinnitus has continued since in-service noise exposures, the condition is presumed connected to service. Therefore, entitlement to service connection is established. 38 U.S.C. § 1112; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.303, 3.307(a), 3.309(a). K. Parakkal Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans' Appeals Attorney for the Board M. Davis, Associate Counsel 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.