What is the Average Cost of a Traumatic Brain Injury?

• March 12, 2024
• Attorney Matt Stoddard
• Catastrophic Injury

Devastating traumatic brain injuries (TBI) can mean months of rehabilitation, memory loss, impaired motor function, and disability. They result in expensive medical bills, possibly a lifetime of diminished earnings, and serious emotional distress. Whether caused by a car accident, fall, or other incident, if you have sustained a traumatic brain injury, it is not only your physical and mental health that will suffer, but your financial health too.

The cost in dollars of a traumatic brain injury can be staggering. Exactly how much you may pay will depend on the cause of the accident, the nature of your injuries, and your medical prognosis.

Depending upon your individual circumstances, costs could range from the tens of thousands into the millions. One study estimates a patient’s lifetime cost for brain injury recovery treatment to be $85,000 to $3 million. Nationwide, the total health care costs annually for nonfatal TBIs is estimated at over $40 billion, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says that hundreds of thousands of people suffer TBI each year.

Economic And Non-economic Costs Associated With A Brain Injury

There are both economic and non-economic costs of brain injuries. Economic costs are those that are easier to quantify and include doctor and hospital bills, nursing home care, rehabilitation costs, and others.  Non-economic costs—such as emotional distress—are harder to put a number on.

Economic Costs of TBI

Doctor and Hospital Bills

In-hospital costs per TBI patient are generally high and ranged from $2,130 to $401,808 in a recent year. The average hourly wage for a neurosurgeon – the doctor who might be called upon to treat a TBI patient – is $324, according to Salary.com.

Nursing Home Bills

Moderate to severely injured TBI patients often require rehabilitation as part of their treatment, which is given during a nursing home stay.  A private nursing home room in the Atlanta area costs $283 per day.

Speech and Occupational Therapist Bills

Experts say that the average cost of a speech therapist starts at $100 per hour. At the high end, a single occupational therapy visit could be as much as $200.

Prescription Drug Costs

It’s anybody’s guess how high a person’s prescription drug costs could run after suffering a traumatic brain injury. In some TBI cases, drugs are not administered for a only short period of time but could be required for life.

Bills for Adaptive Equipment

Standard, manual wheelchairs cost hundreds of dollars.  Costs for a power wheelchair vary tremendously. They can cost from the hundreds or low thousands to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on brands and features.

In-Home Care

The average cost of in-home care in Georgia is $4,290 a month.  These services include housekeeping, transportation, medication management, meal preparation, grocery shopping, mobility assistance, bathing, and dressing.

Home Modifications

Remodeling your home to make it accessible for persons with disabilities can cost thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. How much the final price tag is will depend on the amount of work that must be done.

Additional TBI Costs

In addition to medical expenses and costs for navigating life after a TBI, lost wages and benefits and loss of future earning capacity must also be factored into overall losses. What this number is will be determined by your individual salary and prospects for future earnings.

Non-economic Costs of a TBI

Non-economic costs of a TBI injury include pain and suffering, depression, anxiety, lost enjoyment of life, mental anguish, and other physical and emotional effects. Were it not for the accident that caused the injury, the person would not experience these issues. Determining these costs can be complex, and there are a couple of different methods that can be used to calculate them.

Getting Payment for Your TBI Injuries and Damages

It is hard to estimate precisely the total costs that all individuals suffer due to TBI, because each claim is dependent on the facts in the case. A skilled and experienced Atlanta personal injury attorney can help you calculate your specific TBI costs and advise you how much you could potentially get in compensation for your injuries and damages if they were due to another party’s actions. Damages are payment for all of your economic and non-economic costs.

Your attorney will then help you by building a strong claim and negotiating for a fair settlement with the at-fault party’s insurance company. This could be the insurer of the driver who hit you or the owner of the property where you tripped and fell, for example. If a fair settlement cannot be reached, your lawyer will counsel you about taking your claim to court to get satisfactory payment for your TBI injuries.

Contact A Skilled and Experienced Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer Today

While a mild TBI might not require extensive medical treatment, according to the Mayo Clinic, immediate emergency medical care is necessary for moderate to severe injuries. Emergency surgery may be required as well as expensive drugs and procedures to reduce the amount of damage to the brain right after an injury. You can see how costly such an injury is even before you have left the emergency room.

A serious TBI is considered a catastrophic injury, which means it is the worst of the worst. And consequently, one of the most expensive of injuries. If you’ve suffered a traumatic brain injury caused by another party’s negligent, reckless, or violent act, you have the right to seek financial compensation.

Our personal injury lawyers at The Stoddard Firm fight hard for the interests of people seriously hurt due to the actions of other parties. You should not be stuck with the exorbitant costs of a TBI caused by someone else. To find out more about your legal options, call us to schedule a free initial consultation at 470-467-2200.