The average cost of your SCI

Spinal cord injuries leave a serious, often permanent impact on you if you suffer one. The surgery, recovery and rehabilitation come with costs in both monetary and emotional terms. If you suffer an SCI due to negligence, it may help to know the average costs in order to build a claim for compensation.

The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center breaks down the average yearly expenses of an SCI.

SCI severity

The spinal column is where your nervous system branches out to everything. Often, with a spinal cord injury, harm to it leads to numbness or even paralysis elsewhere. Lower on the spinal column may mean paralysis lower on the body. Higher on the spinal column risks widespread damage. Injuries to the C1-C8 vertebrae may risk tetraplegia — the partial or full paralysis of your body.

Initial expenses

The first year represents a lot of the costs of finding a new normal after a serious SCI. Tetraplegia, even low tetraplegia along the C5-C8 vertebrae, starts at an average of $830,708. Motor function loss at any level may see average expenses around $375,196.

Lifetime costs

Life expectancy remains significantly below those without SCIs, which may inform your insurance company how much to pay overall. 25-year-olds with high tetraplegia average an estimated lifetime cost of $5,100,941 while 50-year-olds see an average of $2,803,391.

An incomplete SCI may have a greater probability of recovery, but that does not alleviate the potential costs. These averages do not take into account indirect costs like lost wages or productivity. Even after the potential recovery, you may have new financial hurdles ahead without help or compensation.