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Care for Someone with a Traumatic Brain Injury Can Cost Millions
Care for someone with a traumatic brain injury can cost millions
by lainie.little@thomsonreuters.com | May 7, 2023 | Traumatic Brain Injuries
A traumatic brain injury (TBI) could be the result of a car crash, a fall or even some kind of product failure. Someone may strike their head or experience very rough motions that cause bleeding and bruising on the brain.
Brain injuries range from mild to severe, and they can often create lifelong medical symptoms even in milder cases. They might leave someone with mild memory issues or changes in their mental health. They could also leave people unable to work a job or completely dependent on life support and around-the-clock care from family members or professional caregivers.
Those with a TBI or caring for a loved one with a TBI often have to look at every available option for compensation because the care required could cost millions.
How much does medical treatment for a brain injury cost?
There is quite a broad range of estimated average costs reported for brain injuries. Those who require trauma care but who recover and have minimal ongoing needs may have total lifetime costs closer to the lower end of the spectrum, which is at around $85,000. Even that amount could be more than the available insurance for bodily injury after a car wreck.
However, if someone requires surgery, a room in a care facility or skilled nursing support in their home, then their TBI’s total care costs could go as high as $3 million. That amount doesn’t even factor in their lost earning potential, the need to change a home in a vehicle to accommodate them and the lost earning potential of any family member who serves as their caregiver. Those secondary expenses can add tens of thousands of dollars to the total costs a TBI generates for a household.
Basic car insurance often isn’t enough to cover the costs of a brain injury, and people may need to go to court or negotiate a claim very carefully to prevent a brain injury from causing household financial devastation. Quantifying the household consequences that the family can anticipate after someone’s diagnosis with a TBI or similar catastrophic injury can pave the way toward filing a lawsuit against an at-fault party that could potentially cover all of someone’s injury-related losses.