Citation Nr: 18148956
Decision Date: 11/08/18	Archive Date: 11/08/18

DOCKET NO. 18-00 252
DATE:	November 8, 2018
ORDER
Entitlement to service connection for a right eye disability is granted.
FINDING OF FACT
Resolving all reasonable doubt in the Veteran’s favor, the Veteran’s right eye disability is connected to service.
CONCLUSION OF LAW
The criteria to establish service connection for a right eye disability are met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 5107(b); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303(a).
REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION
The Veteran served on active duty from April 2013 to August 2013 and April 2015 to April 2016.
Entitlement to service connection for a right eye disability
The Veteran contends that he is entitled to service connection for a right eye disability. For the forthcoming reasons, the Board finds service connection warranted.
Service connection will be granted if the evidence demonstrates that a current disability resulted from an injury or disease incurred in or aggravated by active service.  38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(a).  Establishing service connection generally requires competent evidence of three things: (1) a current disability; (2) in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury; and (3) a causal relationship, i.e., a nexus, between the claimed in-service disease or injury and the current disability.  Holton v. Shinseki, 557 F.3d 1362, 1366 (Fed. Cir. 2009).
When there is an approximate balance of positive and negative evidence regarding any issue material to the determination of a matter, VA shall give the benefit of the doubt to the claimant.  38 U.S.C. § 5107; see also Gilbert v. Derwinski, 1 Vet. App. 49, 53 (1990).
The Veteran contends that his current bilateral optic nerve disorder is related to service. The Veteran complained of eye problems multiple times throughout service. Six months after service, in November 2016, the Veteran received a Compensation and Pension (C&P) examination in which he was diagnosed with an unspecified papilledema; the examiner noted that the Veteran’s eye symptoms began in service and had been continuous ever since. The Veteran was advised to seek follow-up treatment with VA. One year later, the Veteran received a follow-up examination in which he was diagnosed with a bilateral optic nerve disorder and told he had to follow-up with his medical practitioners on a yearly basis to ensure his condition did not worsen. Accordingly, as the Veteran suffered from eye symptoms in service and was diagnosed with a bilateral optic nerve disorder six months after discharge, the Board finds that the evidence is in equipoise, and service connection is warranted. The Board acknowledges that the record contains negative evidence with respect to the claim, including a negative C&P opinion from March 2017; on review, however, this opinion contains little in the way of rationale, and is therefore entitled to little probative value. Accordingly, the Board finds that by resolving all reasonable doubt in favor of the Veteran, the criteria for  service connection for a right eye disability have been met.
 
LESLEY A. REIN
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	C. Ryan, Associate Counsel