Citation Nr: 21069294 Decision Date: 11/18/21 Archive Date: 11/18/21 DOCKET NO. 17-01 464 DATE: November 18, 2021 REMANDED Entitlement to service connection for sleep apnea is remanded. REASONS FOR REMAND The Veteran served on active duty from July 1993 to September 1998. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from an April 2011 rating decision issued by a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). The Veteran testified before the undersigned at a hearing in July 2021. A transcript of the hearing is of record. The Board remanded this matter in July 2015 for additional development. The matter is now returned to the Board for further appellate review. The Veteran contends his sleep apnea began during his active-duty service, to include due to irregular sleep patterns and austere sleeping conditions and breathing fumes from military equipment and vehicles. The record establishes the Veteran has sleep apnea; therefore, the current disability requirement for this claim has been established. At the July 2021 hearing, the Veteran testified fellow soldiers commented on how loud he snored at night and advised him to seek medical treatment for his snoring. Further, the Veteran testified he sought medical treatment while on active duty and the attending medical provider told him he possibly had sleep apnea. The Veteran testified he did not seek follow up treatment because he did not have enough free time due to his unit's training schedule. The Veteran's then spouse submitted a statement reporting that while they were married, from approximately 1994 to 2002, the Veteran snored while he slept, stopped breathing at times for approximately 10 to 12 seconds, and would then gasp for air. The Veteran's testimony and lay statements of record are sufficient to trigger VA's duty to provide an examination under the McLendon standard because the evidence meets the low threshold of showing the claimed disability may be related to service. See McLendon v. Nicholson, 20 Vet. App. 79, 83 (2006). The matter is REMANDED for the following action: Schedule the Veteran for an examination regarding his service connection claim for sleep apnea. The selected examiner must provide an opinion addressing whether the Veteran's sleep apnea at least as likely as not (50 percent probability or greater) first manifest during his active service or is otherwise the related to service, to include irregular sleep patterns and austere sleeping conditions or breathing fumes from military equipment and vehicles. The examiner must be advised the Veteran and his former spouse are competent to report symptoms experienced and observed, and such reports must be specifically acknowledged and considered in formulating any opinion. If the examiner rejects the Veteran's or his former spouse's reports, he or she must provide a reason for doing so. The examiner may not reject the Veteran's and his former spouse's lay statements regarding the Veteran's symptoms capable of lay observation solely because they were not documented in contemporaneous medical records. The examination report must include a complete rationale for the opinion provided. M. HYLAND Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans' Appeals Attorney for the Board Zachery S.C. Luce, 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.