Citation Nr: 21013557 Decision Date: 03/09/21 Archive Date: 03/09/21 DOCKET NO. 17-15 607 DATE: March 9, 2021 ORDER Entitlement to service connection for left ear hearing loss is granted. FINDING OF FACT The evidence is in relative equipoise as to whether the Veteran’s left ear hearing loss is related to his active service. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for service connection for left ear hearing loss are met. 38 U.S.C. § 1110, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran had active service from January 1964 to January 1966. Entitlement to service connection for left ear hearing loss. Service connection may be granted for disability resulting from disease or injury incurred in or aggravated by active service. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 5107; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303. This may be accomplished by affirmatively showing inception or aggravation during service. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(a). Service connection may also be granted for disability shown after service, when all of the evidence, including that pertinent to service, shows that it was incurred in service. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(d). For a Veteran who served 90 days or more of active service after December 31, 1946, there is a presumption of service connection for organic diseases of the nervous system such as sensorineural hearing loss if the disability is manifest to a compensable degree within one year of discharge from service. 38 U.S.C. § 1112; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.307, 3.309(a). For the showing of chronic disease in service there is required a combination of manifestations sufficient to identify the disease entity and sufficient observation to establish chronicity at the time, as distinguished from merely isolated findings or a diagnosis including the word “chronic.” Continuity of symptomatology after discharge is required where the condition noted during service is not, in fact, shown to be chronic or where the diagnosis of chronicity may be legitimately questioned. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(b); Walker v. Shinseki, 708 F.3d 1331 (Fed. Cir. 2013). 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; where the auditory thresholds for at least three of these frequencies are 26 decibels or greater or when the Maryland CNC speech recognition scores are less than 94 percent. 38 C.F.R. § 3.385. The threshold for normal hearing is from 0 to 20 decibels, with higher threshold levels indicating some degree of hearing loss. Hensley v. Brown, 5 Vet. App. 155, 157 (1993). The Veteran contends that he has had left ear hearing loss since service. During the October 2019 Board hearing, the Veteran testified that he has had hearing problems since service. He explained that he was a Morse intercept operator and worked for eight to sixteen hours per day with headphones digging out Morse code signals. He explained that he essentially worked as a cryptologic technician. He submitted photographs of service members inside a radio room with headphones on listening to radio traffic. Service treatment records during the Veteran’s active duty service show whispered voice texting was 15/15. See January 1966 examination. On VA audiological examination in August 2013, the Veteran had left ear hearing loss as he had 50 decibels at 4000 Hertz in the left ear with a diagnosis of sensorineural hearing loss. To the extent that the August 2013 VA opinion was based on an inaccurate factual premise and the Board found the September 2013 addendum opinion along with the August 2014 VA opinion to be inadequate, these opinions need not be further addressed. In a VA opinion in September 2020, the examiner opined that the Veteran’s left ear hearing loss was less likely than not incurred in or caused by service based on the rationale that the Veteran’s service treatment records only show whispered voice tests, which are unreliable. The examiner noted that a 1993 audiogram was normal, which was twenty seven years after the Veteran separated from service and suggests that there were no significant threshold shifts while the Veteran was on active duty. The examiner explained that hearing loss due to noise exposure occurs at the time of the event, not years later. The examiner concluded that the Veteran’s hearing loss occurred many years after service and there was no scientific basis for the existence of delayed-onset hearing loss. However, this opinion is primarily based on the assumption that the Veteran had normal hearing in his left ear during service and is therefore of limited probative value because the absence of a hearing loss disability in service is not in and of itself fatal to a claim for service connection for hearing loss. Ledford v. Derwinski, 3 Vet. App. 87, 89 (1992). Furthermore, neither audiograms dated in September 1993 or September 1999 provided Maryland CNC speech recognition scores. Moreover, the Veteran’s contentions are credible and consistent with the circumstances of his service, to include acoustic trauma, as his DD 214 Form shows that his military occupational specialty was radio operator.   Considering the claim for service connection for left ear hearing loss, in light of the record and the governing legal authority, the Board resolves all reasonable doubt in favor of the Veteran and finds that the evidence is in relative equipoise on the question of a nexus. 38 U.S.C. § 5107(b); 38 C.F.R. § 3.102; Gilbert v. Derwinski, 1 Vet. App. 49 (1990). Thomas H. O'Shay Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals Attorney for the Board M. Mac, 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.