Economic Costs of Spinal Cord Injuries

Each year about 11,000 people in the United States suffer severe but non-fatal injuries to their spinal cords that leave them with some degree of paralysis or loss of motor function. There are now about a quarter of a million people in this country living with spinal cord injuries. Many of these injured parties bring lawsuits alleging negligence or malfeasance and seeking compensation for lost earning capacity and medical costs. Below is information that should be useful to attorneys trying such cases.

Degrees of spinal cord injury The location and extent of the injury to the spine determine the degree of loss of body function and have a great impact on the ultimate economic damages for your client. About 53 percent of permanent spinal cord injuries (excluding the small percentage of those who recover) result in paraplegia, or the loss of feeling and movement in the lower parts of the body. If your client has this type of injury, a vocational rehabilitation expert is likely to find that your client has significant residual earning capacity, perhaps with retraining. The remaining 47 percent suffer from quadriplegia or tetraplegia. Injuries to the top of the spine, vertabra C-1 to C-4, are classified as high tetraplegia and result in paralysis from the neck down while those occurring in vertebra C-5 to C-8 are termed low tetraplegia and result in paralysis from the shoulders down. Within these categories, paralysis can be complete or incomplete. The most severe non-fatal spinal cord injuries leave a person dependent upon a ventilator while the least severe, resulting in “incomplete motor function,” are evidenced by involuntary movements such as spasms, twitching, and shaking.

Reduced earning capacity Estimates of how much a spinal cord injury has reduced the capacity of your client to earn income must consider not only pre-injury earning histories but also prospects for post-injury employment. The severity of the injury will obviously determine the feasibility of reemployment and a vocational rehabilitation expert will be needed to evaluate employability in each particular case. The National Spinal Cord Injury Association reports that eight years after their injuries 34 percent of paraplegics and 24 percent of quadriplegics (or tetraplegics) are employed. Many of those who are working have part-time positions and are likely to miss work periodically due to complications from their conditions. Calculations of future earning capacity for your client should be reduced to account for these involuntary breaks in employment and the strong liklihood of a reduced number of remaining years in the workforce.

Medical and living costs If your client has an extemely severe type of injury, damages for medical care and living costs will probably outweigh damages for lost income. The Spinal Cord Injury Information Network provides “average yearly health care and living expenses that are directly attributable to [spinal cord injuries].” These annual costs, which are highest in the first year after the accident, range from $15,000 to over $700,000, depending upon the severity of the injury. (SCIIN's 2000 dollar values have been inflated to their 2004 dollar equivalents.)