Question:
Should kidney cancer and removal of a kidney due to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune be rated 100% if you are service connected for this illness?
Jim's Reply:
Reading in The Schedule For Rating Disabilities §4.115b Ratings of the genitourinary system, we learn that the rating for the loss of a kidney is 30%. As traumatic as it seems, losing a kidney isn't particularly long-term disabling as most people recover nicely as the other kidney takes over all the renal function we need to live normally. VA disability ratings are supposed to be established as compensation to match the degree of disability a given condition gives us. The 30% rating may actually be appropriate if we combine it with other ratings that may be secondary to the surgical loss of the organ...scarring, urinary difficulty and so