When to Contact a Veterans Rights Attorney for Military Hearing Loss

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Many veterans start to experience visual or auditory problems after retiring from active-duty. These eye and ear problems are often caused by an event that happened during service, but symptoms may not begin to show for years afterwards. If you don’t experience vision or hearing impairment for years after retiring from active-duty, do not assume that your medical conditions are a result of age! With the help of a Veterans Rights Attorney, you may be able to receive Veterans Disability Compensation from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.

To win Veterans Disability Compensation, veterans must prove that their disability is service-connected. To establish a service-connected disability, a Veterans Rights Attorney will need to show the VA a medical diagnosis from a specialized physician linking a current visual or auditory disorder to an event that occurred during active duty.

Veterans Disability Compensation for Hearing Impairment

Veterans who suffer from hearing loss, Tinnitus, cancer, perforated eardrums, loss of one or both auricles, and dizziness due to inner ear problems may be entitled to Veterans Disability Compensation.

The symptoms of service-related hearing loss may not appear until years after retiring from active duty. Because of this, many veterans make the mistake of assuming hearing loss has come from old age. However, there has been an increase in the number of both young and older veterans winning Veterans Disability Compensation due to hearing loss as a result of being exposed to loud noise during service. Some of the events leading to veterans’ hearing problems include the usage of weapons and gunfire, explosions, tanks or large vehicular engines, and more recently the distribution of 3M ear plugs.

To receive Veterans Disability Compensation for hearing loss, auditory problems must be diagnosed by an Audiologist using a pure-tone audiometric test and a Maryland CNC test to measure the level of hearing loss and speech recognition ability. A diagnosis establishing a connection between your service in the military and the resulting hearing loss is vital to receiving Veterans Disability Compensation.

 

“If you don’t experience vision or hearing impairment for years after retiring from active-duty, do not assume that your medical conditions are a result of age!”

 

Additional Veterans Compensation due to Defective 3M Earplugs

Additional Compensation is owed if you have been affected by the use of Defective 3M earplugs. 3M ear plugs have been one of the leading causes of military hearing loss in recent years. Millions of dollars’ worth of Dual-Ended Combat Arms™ Earplugs were manufactured and sold by 3M/Aero to the U.S. Military between 2003 and 2015. The military distributed these earplugs to hundreds of thousands of military personnel both domestically and deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2016, the U.S. Government sued 3M/Aero for defrauding the United States government by knowingly selling defective earplugs.  3M/Aero settled this lawsuit in 2018 for $9.1 million, therefore admitting their fraudulent conduct.

This settlement was nothing in comparison to the profits made by 3M/Aero from the sales of these earplugs. And it is also noteworthy that proceeds from the settlement will not be distributed to military personnel that was affected.  If you are one of the thousands of US servicemen and women that were given 3M/Aero earplugs while serving in the military and now suffer from hearing loss or tinnitus, you can get a free 3M Earplugs Case Evaluation from a Veterans Rights Attorney at Taylor Martino P.C.

 

“With the help of a Veterans Rights Attorney, you may be able to receive Veterans Disability Compensation from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs or pursue a civil lawsuit.”

 

Veterans Disability Compensation for Vision Impairment

Many veterans are now legally blind or suffer from low vision, especially among  veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who have suffered traumatic brain injury leading to vision impairments. If you have served in the military and suffer from loss of sight, blurry vision, double vision, loss of peripheral vision, or loss of light perception, you may be entitled to Veterans Disability Compensation.

Symptoms of central or peripheral vision loss related to military service may not show up for up to three years after retiring from active duty. Experts say too few returning veterans don’t seek medical attention for their vision loss when symptoms first appear. To receive Veterans Disability Compensation for vision loss, veterans must prove to the VA that their disability is a result of an event during their time in the military.

In order to link an event that occurred during service to a current medical condition, a licensed optometrist or ophthalmologist identify the injury or disease that caused the vision impairment. It is required that your optometrist or ophthalmologist uses either the Goldmann kinetic perimetry or automated perimetry and the results of the test must be reported on a Goldmann chart. Receiving this completed chart with the examination report is essential to your Veterans Disability Compensation case.

If you are a veteran experiencing hearing or vision impairment, you could be entitled to Veterans Disability Compensation. An experienced Veterans Rights Attorney at Taylor Martino P.C., will assess your case and aid in protecting your rights. Having a lawyer for military hearing loss is especially crucial to help assist in all of the proper paperwork and the first steps for filing a lawsuit. If you are suffering from eye or ear problems after serving, call Taylor Martino P.C., Personal Injury Lawyers to take legal action today!

 

“To establish a service-connected disability, a Veterans Rights Attorney will need to show the VA a medical diagnosis from a specialized physician linking a current visual or auditory disorder to an event that occurred during active duty.”