Citation Nr: 18144503 Decision Date: 10/24/18 Archive Date: 10/24/18 DOCKET NO. 16-29 360 DATE: October 24, 2018 ORDER Entitlement to service connection for a renal disorder, to include a right radical nephrectomy for kidney cancer, is denied. FINDING OF FACT The preponderance of the evidence is against finding that the Veteran’s renal disorder, to include a right radical nephrectomy for kidney cancer, began during active service, or is otherwise related to an in-service injury, event, or disease. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for service connection for a renal disorder, to include a right radical nephrectomy for kidney cancer, are not met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1131, 5107(b); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303(a). REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served during peacetime from March 1980 to January 1986. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a July 2015 Rating Decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in Winston Salem, North Carolina. The Veteran states that he depends on public assistance because he attends dialysis three times per week, which leaves him weak and without much energy. The veteran claims that because he served in the armed forces and now is disabled, he should be helped in his time of need. To establish service connection, there must exist medical or, in certain circumstances, lay 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 disease or injury and the present disability. Romanowsky v. Shinseki, 26 Vet. App. 289, 293 (2013); 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(a). Nephritis is a chronic disease for which a veteran may be entitled to presumptive service connection, whereby the nephritis will be presumed to have been caused by service. 38 C.F.R. § 3.309(a). A veteran is entitled to presumptive service connection for nephritis if the veteran has served ninety days or more of active service during a war period or after December 31, 1946. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1101, 1112; 38 C.F.R. § 3.307(a)(1). Furthermore, the nephritis must have become manifest to a degree of ten percent or more within one year from the date of separation from service. 38 C.F.R. § 3.309(a)(3). A review of the Veteran’s Service Treatment Records (STRs) reveal no complaints or reports of kidney injury or pain. Post service, the Veteran attended a VA treatment facility for problems he was experiencing with his right kidney. These records date from June 2009 through December 2014 and indicate that, as early as June 30, 2009, the Veteran had a diagnosis of chronic kidney disease. In March 2015, when he filed his claim for service connection, the Veteran also submitted a written statement from a friend, D.H. D.H. indicated that she has known the Veteran for the past year and that she has witnessed the Veteran’s health and mobility decline. D.H. also reported that the Veteran attends dialysis three times per week Other VA records reveal that, in May 2015, the Veteran underwent a right laparoscopic radical nephrectomy for the removal of his right kidney. These records also extend until June 2015 and document the Veteran’s post-operative progress. The Board accepts that the Veteran’s right kidney was cancerous, requiring removal, and that the Veteran underwent surgery to remove his right kidney. Thus, the first Romanowsky element is satisfied. Presumptive Service Connection The Veteran’s STRs contain no complaints of pain in his right kidney. The Veteran separated from service in January 1986. The evidence of record indicates that the Veteran had chronic kidney disease in his right kidney since June 2009. Therefore, because the evidence of record reflects that the Veteran obtained a diagnosis of chronic kidney disease more than one year after separation from service and there existed no continuity of symptomatology of nephritis from service until June 2009, the Veteran is not entitled to presumptive service connection for his kidney condition. See 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.303(b), 3.307(a)(1), (3). Direct Service Connection In reviewing the Veteran’s filings, there is not one instance in which the Veteran alleges that the removal of his kidney, or the cancer therein, is due to any occurrence in service, or even his service generally. In his VA Form 21-56EZ, the Veteran simply lists that he is seeking service connection for cancer of his right kidney without linking his cancer to any in-service event. D.H. has known the Veteran only since 2014, and her personal statement discusses nothing about his period of service. In his Notice of Disagreement ( NOD ), the Veteran left blank the form in all areas except his personal information. The Veteran did not list his cancerous right kidney as the issue that he was appealing, and the Veteran listed no argument as to why he believed the RO incorrectly decided this issue. In his VA Form 9, the Veteran lists the hardships that his kidney condition impose upon him and the fact that he believes that his service entitles him to disability compensation. Without argument or allegation, and evidence thereof, that his kidney condition occurred during service or as a result of service, the second and third Romanowsky elements have not been satisfied, and the Veteran is not entitled to service connection. In sum, the Board finds that the preponderance of the evidence is against the Veteran’s claim of service connection for a renal disorder, to include a right radical nephrectomy for kidney cancer. The Board is unable to find an approximate balance of the positive and negative evidence submitted to otherwise warrant for the Veteran a favorable decision. See 38 U.S.C. § 5107(b); Gilbert, 1 Vet. App. at 53. JONATHAN B. KRAMER Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD Trevor T. Bernard, Associate Counsel