Your brain is a powerful but delicate organ. It is constantly hard at work, regulating your subconscious bodily functions and helping you solve problems. However, your brain is also very vulnerable. All it takes is blunt force trauma or violent motions to potentially cause an injury to your brain.
Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) can occur if you fall down a flight of stairs or get hurt in a car crash. A TBI is one of the most expensive and catastrophic injuries a person can suffer. Especially if a person has a moderate to severe TBI, they can expect significant financial consequences.
Why are brain injuries so costly?
Medical care for injured brains isn’t cheap
Just the act of performing imaging tests to locate the exact position and the overall severity of a brain injury can cost thousands of dollars. Treatment options often involve very delicate surgery and extended rehabilitative support.
Researchers estimate that the lifetime medical costs created by a moderate to severe TBI will be anywhere from $85,000 to $3 million, sometimes more. That medical care could exhaust what insurance will cover for your family.
Brain injuries mean lost earning potential
Everything from your fine motor skills as you chop vegetables in a kitchen to your ability to recall previous situations with similar complications can change after a TBI. People in both mentally-demanding and physically-taxing professions may no longer be able to do their jobs as they did before.
Some people will not be able to work at all, and others may require that a spouse or parent leave the workforce to provide them with around-the-clock medical care. Those lost wages may eventually add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The costs associated with a traumatic brain injury can demand aggressive negotiations with an insurance provider. Premises liability and motor vehicle insurance policies could at least help cover some of a person’s costs after a TBI. Depending on the coverage available, people with TBIs may need to look into a civil claim against the property owner or driver responsible for their injury.
Identifying and estimating major financial losses after a brain injury can help you pursue compensation as necessary for those losses.
