Spinal cord injuries – often cause by falls or car accidents – create serious challenges in a person’s life. One particularly serious obstacle they face is the financial impact of their injuries. What should you know about how a spinal cord injury (SCI) can impact an injured person’s finances?
SCIs require costly medical care.
The journey of recovery begins with the immediate medical care following the injury. This phase often involves emergency treatment, surgery, hospitalization, and early rehabilitation. These services are crucial but come with a high price tag. In the United States, the first year of treatment for SCI can range from $347,484 to over $1 million depending on the severity of the injury.
However, care for a spinal cord injury is a long-term challenge. Costs over a lifetime can include:
- Ongoing medical treatments: Regular visits to specialists, physical therapy, pain management, and other medical needs are ongoing expenses that can add up significantly over time.
- Rehabilitation: Intensive rehabilitation is often necessary and can include a range of therapies designed to help regain as much function as possible.
- Medications: Many SCI patients require numerous medications for pain management, spasticity, and other related conditions.
The lifetime cost of care for a spinal cord injury is staggering. In some cases, the cost of care can total nearly $5 million.
People with SCIs often need to modify their environment.
Living with a spinal cord injury (SCI) requires a person to adapt their home and their vehicle to meet their new needs. These modifications can include:
- Ramps and lifts: Installing ramps at entryways and lifts can be essential modifications to ensure that a person can navigate their home.
- Widened doorways: Standard doorways can be too narrow for comfortable wheelchair access, so people may need to widen the doorways in their home.
- Accessible bathroom: A person may need to add roll-in shower, grab bars, a higher toilet seat and a wheelchair-accessible sink to their bathroom.
- Kitchen adjustments: Lowering kitchen countertops, adding pull-out shelves and other steps may be necessary to allow a person with an SCI to use their kitchen.
- Vehicle modifications: Depending on the limitations created by the spinal cord injury, a person may need their vehicle to include ramps, lifts, hand controls, steering aids, transfer seats or other modifications.
All of these modifications can add up quickly.
In addition to these costs, an SCI can limit a person’s ability to work.
At the same time injured people must manage the cost of medical care and modifications to their home, they may also find it difficult to pursue their career as a result of their injuries. One study that analyzed injured people in 22 countries found that the average employment rate among people with spinal cord injuries is only 38 percent. Even those who can work may earn significantly less than they did before their injuries.
SCI survivors face many costs in the aftermath of an accident. In this difficult time, it is important for injured people and their families to understand the legal options that could provide them with financial support.