Types of Compensation for A Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal cord injuries are among the worst types of injuries because they are almost always complicated — and severe. A spinal cord injury will most likely affect you and your loved ones for the rest of your life.

The costs associated with a spinal cord injury are hard to fathom: The Christopher and Dave Reeve Foundation estimates that a 25-year-old person with a severe spinal cord injury could incur anywhere between $2 million and $4.5 million in expenses over the course of his or her life.

What Are the Costs Associated with Spinal Cord Injuries?

There are several costs that can be incurred with a spinal cord injury. These include:

• Medical care – This can mean hospitalization, doctor’s visits, consultations, surgeries, prescriptions, home health care, wheelchairs, and much more. This can also include long-term injuries that are related to the spinal cord injury, such as bedsores, bladder infections and other illnesses. This can all add up very quickly.

• Caregiver – If you hire a home health care professional to care for the victim of a spinal cord injury, then you can expect to pay a lot of money for that service, typically between $15 and $25 an hour. If a friend or family member is the one giving the care, that person will also likely lose income due to not being able to work full-time.

• Loss of earning capacity – If you are permanently disabled from your spinal cord injury, your ability to work full-time and make a living is greatly diminished. This can have a big impact on your finances.

• Alternative treatments – Often, spinal cord injuries lead to alternative treatments, such as acupuncture, chiropractors and massage. These are all additional expenses that you might not have planned for.

What Types of Compensation Should You Seek After a Spinal Cord Injury?

If you sustained a spinal cord injury because of a business’s or someone else’s negligence, you are entitled to recoup all of the above expenses — medical, caregiving, loss of earning capacity, diminished quality of life, alternative treatments — plus more. These include:

• Making adaptations to your home — like wheelchair lifts and ramps, widened doors, bathroom adaptations – or moving to a home or facility that will better suit your long-term needs.

• To make sure you are compensated not only for the past income you have lost, but for future income as well.

• Any and all costs associated with living the best, most independent life possible.

Spinal cord injuries are anything but easy, and that’s where an experienced spinal cord injury attorney comes in. If you or someone you love has suffered a spinal cord injury, contact Robert Armstrong’s office for help.