What’s the real economic impact of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) with motor impairment, once all of the initial treatment is done and the patient is left dealing with the burdens of his or her disability?
A new study attempts to put down the cost of a traumatic brain injury in dollars and cents — and the figures are staggering, to say the least.
What the Study Tells Us About TBI Victims
The study was a project of the Analysis Group, Inc., a firm that specializes in health care economics. It followed the health care costs of 299 patients, aged 18 to 75, with motor impairments as the result of their TBIs. They were compared to a control group of almost 600 patients with no TBI history. The costs of everything from prescription drugs to emergency room visits were included in the study, which was conducted over two years and analyzed in 6-month blocks of time.
Unsurprisingly, the medical costs of a TBI that causes some form of motor impairment — whether that’s in the form of speech, the ability to walk or fine motor skill problems — were the largest in the first year following the accident.
However, even once things stabilized for the TBI victim, the yearly health care costs continued to be about four times the amount of those experienced by patients without TBIs. The average TBI victim can expect to pay thousands of dollars more per year in health care above what a non-impaired patient pays.
Studies like these help victims and attorneys put a dollar figure on a victim’s injuries. Part of the attorney’s job is to try to get the victim as much compensation for his or her future needs as possible. And anything that helps show a jury the long-term costs of living with a TBI can benefit the victim.
For more information on how you can come up with an accurate figure in order to request compensation for your TBI, or to discuss your particular case, make an appointment with an attorney today. If you’d like more information on our firm’s approach to a case, please visit our page.