Consider how SCIs affect your wage earning potential

Spinal cord injuries affect you physically, mentally and emotionally and all those tolls result in financial costs. Surgery and rehabilitation take weeks and even months of hospital stays. Physical paralysis may result in longer periods as you adjust to a new normal with assistive aids like wheelchairs.

All of this makes it easy to focus on how much money you spend on recovery. One factor that is easier to forget is the money you fail to make while recovering.

Direct costs of SCIs

According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical center, you may find yourself facing first-year costs anywhere between $375,196 and $1.14 million. Subsequent yearly costs average between $45,572 and $199,637.

Indirect costs of SCIs

However, these estimates do not include the costs as a result of your inability to work. This includes wages, productivity and any fringe benefits gained from your place of work. As of 2019, those indirect costs average out at an additional $77,701 per year. This may not mean you lost your job either but paralysis and nerve damage tends to affect the amount of labor you provide to your employer on a daily basis.

Securing the costs

SCIs often result from motor vehicle accidents or slip-and-fall accidents. When you suffer an SCI as a result of negligence in one of those two situations, you may have options to recover those financial costs. This may include the direct hospital costs and the indirect costs of your lost wages.

It is important to understand your case, the situation regarding your injuries and your options for making the argument that you deserve compensation for your pain.