The Cost of Treating Serious Spinal Cord Injuries

A serious spinal cord injury can change your life forever. Many of these injuries require extensive treatment if they’re going to heal to a degree that allows the person to have movement and mobility again. In other cases, this type of recovery isn’t even possible. The cost of treating the injury will then include the costs of living with the limitations that it creates.

If you’ve suffered this type of injury, you’re probably a bit worried about the costs of these treatments. You may be happy to live in a country where world-class healthcare is available, but it’s clear that that’s a very expensive way to get the treatment that you need. What’s it going to look like?

First year and subsequent years

The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, has investigated these costs, and they’ve estimated both the initial cost of treatment the first year and the cost of treatment over subsequent years. They factored this out so that you can get estimated lifetime costs.

Naturally, these costs are going to vary a bit from person to person. It depends on where you get the medical treatment, how severe the injury is, how well your recovery goes and much else.

That being said, here are some of the costs for the first year of treatment for four of the most common spinal cord injuries:

1. Motor function at any level AIS D: $379,698

2. Paraplegia: $567,011

3. Low Tetraplegia (C5-C8): $840,676

4. High Tetraplegia (C1-C4) ASIS ABC: $1,163,425

However, remember that that’s just the first year. Each subsequent year is estimated to cost between $46,000 and $202,000. Below are the estimated lifetime costs for someone who is 25 years old at the time of the injury:

1. Motor function at any level AIS D: $1,724,594

2. Paraplegia: $2,524,270

3. Low Tetraplegia (C5-C8): $3,771,791

4. High Tetraplegia (C1-C4) ASIS ABC: $5,162,152

If you have been injured through someone else’s negligence, then you can see how important it is to understand all of the legal options you have to seek financial compensation for your costs.