What do stats suggest about immediate cost of spinal cord injury?
What do stats suggest about immediate cost of spinal cord injury?
On Behalf of Bradley, Drendel & Jeanney • Jul 22, 2016
Few injuries can be as permanent or as severe as an injury to the spinal cord. Since the spine is made up of nerves, bones, muscles and other tissue, it has complexities that other areas of the body do not have. This can make treating or curing conditions associated with spinal cord injuries difficult or impossible. Naturally, this type of injury can have a huge impact on an injured person’s quality of life.
Therefore, it is important to understand how a spinal cord injury can affect an injured person and their family, even in the short-term. Modern medicine has come a long way in rehabilitating those afflicted with a spinal cord injury, but SCI is notoriously a progressively slow moving rehab.
Length of stay in a hospital immediately following a SCI is 11 days, and that does not begin to scratch the surface on the bills an injured person could face with the tests, emergency care and rehabilitation that could take place during those 11 days. Over half of all SCI sufferers report being employed before the injury. One year after injury, just over ten percent reported being employed.
These two statistics alone could financially ruin any family whose loved one suffered a spinal cord injury. With the medical costs and loss of income, the bills can really become a burden on a family. This is why it is crucial for spinal cord injury victims to recognize quickly the financial costs associated with their injury. The faster a family is aware of the costs, the faster they will be able to offset them against a negligent party.
If a negligent party caused an accident that led to the spinal cord injury, they could be liable for the costs arising from the accident.. A spinal cord injury can occur under many circumstances and it is important to pinpoint the circumstances of your loved one’s spinal cord injury. It could pave the way to receiving compensation from a negligent party. Only a full investigation of the circumstances surrounding a loved one’s spinal cord accident can turn up clues as to who or what is responsible, thus, it is imperative that victims and their loved ones understand the recourses and options available to them.
Source: nscisc.aub.edu, ” Spinal Cord Injury Facts and Figures at a Glance ,” Accessed July 18, 2016