Whether due to a car accident or a slip and fall on a company’s premises, a spinal cord injury risks changing your whole life. Even low-impact SCIs can affect your nerves and sensation. Catastrophic SCIs may leave you partially or fully paralyzed.
Each of these comes with a cost. These costs range from a number of sources:
- Emergency surgery
- Hospital stays
- Lost wages
- Emotional and physical health needs
If you are facing the complicated costs of an SCI, it may help to understand the average costs based on how severe an SCI is.
The breakdown of severity and costs
As the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center reports, motor function loss and high tetraplegia may range wildly in how costly recovery is.
Motor function loss at any level averages about $375,196 in the first year. Lifetime costs may range between $1.2 million and $1.7 million depending on your age when you sustained the injury.
High tetraplegia averages $1.14 million in the first year with lifetime costs averaging between $2.8 million and $5.1 million.
Compensation after injury
These estimates include health care and living expenses, though they do not factor in indirect costs like fringe benefits, loss of productivity or wages. The report estimates indirect costs totaled an average of $77,701 per year
Facing these costs while injured may seem impossible. In the event that you sustained these injuries due to negligence, there may be options available to help recover some of these costs. It is important to learn more about your unique situation to determine your options.
