Written and reviewed by Josh Kohanim, Esq., California Bar No. 328609 · Reviewed
In this guide
The full table below comes with its methodology, what the figures leave out, and how a lifetime cost becomes a demand. How liability is proved is on our Los Angeles spinal cord injury lawyer page.
The cost table by severity and age
| Severity of injury | First year | Each later year | Lifetime, injured at 25 | Lifetime, injured at 50 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High tetraplegia, C1 to C4, AIS A, B or C | $1,446,827 | $251,246 | $6,419,617 | $3,528,112 |
| Low tetraplegia, C5 to C8, AIS A, B or C | $1,045,459 | $154,128 | $4,690,573 | $2,885,122 |
| Paraplegia, AIS A, B or C | $705,131 | $93,409 | $3,139,165 | $2,060,139 |
| Motor functional at any level, AIS D | $472,190 | $57,353 | $2,144,693 | $1,513,784 |
Two comparisons in that table do most of the work. Across a row, the lifetime total falls by roughly a third to nearly half between age 25 and age 50, because fewer years are left to fund. Down a column, the first year of high tetraplegia costs about three times the first year of an AIS D injury, and the gap widens every year after that. The first year is also the only year an insurer can see when it makes its first offer. AIS is the American Spinal Injury Association impairment grade, running from A, a complete injury, to D, a motor incomplete one.
Where these numbers come from
The source is the 2026 SCI Data Sheet published by the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, under grants from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. The Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems program has run since 1970 as a prospective longitudinal multicenter study, meaning it follows the same people over time at many centers, and the data sheet is its quick reference.
| Element | What the data sheet states |
|---|---|
| Population | 38,647 people with traumatic spinal cord injury |
| Collection | 31 federally funded SCI Model Systems centers |
| Data cutoff | August 2025 |
| Publication | March 2026 |
| Dollar year | 2025 dollars |
| Discount rate | 2% on lifetime totals |
| Underlying cost study | Economic Impact of SCI, Topics in Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation, Volume 16, Number 4, 2011 |
| Stated variability | Costs vary greatly by education, neurological impairment, and pre-injury employment history |
Two limits in that table should be stated. The registry excludes 16,477 people who were added to the database but did not fully qualify for follow-up, so this is a well characterized sample rather than a census. The expense model itself dates to a 2011 study, restated into current dollars, which means it reflects the pattern of care of that period even though the dollars are current. Anyone quoting these figures should quote the year and the method with them.
What the figures include and leave out
| Included | Excluded |
|---|---|
| Health care costs attributable to the injury | Lost wages, fringe benefits, and productivity |
| Living expenses attributable to the injury | Pain, suffering, and every other noneconomic loss |
| First year and each later year, separately | The cost of the case itself and any liens |
| Four severity categories | Individual variation within a category |
The exclusion that changes claims most is the first one. The same document puts indirect costs, meaning lost wages, fringe benefits and productivity, at an average of $97,787 per year in 2025 dollars, and none of that sits inside any figure in the cost table. In a claim, lost earning capacity is proved separately with a work history, a vocational evaluation, and an economist, and it is added to the care number rather than folded into it.
The second exclusion is the one insurers rely on. Noneconomic damages are not in the table and never were, because the table measures spending rather than loss. A demand that stops at the cost of care has left out the part of the case a jury is asked to value.
How lifetime cost becomes a settlement demand
National averages do not settle cases. They tell you whether the offer on the table is in the right range. The document that carries the number is a life care plan, built for one person from their own chart. It covers physician visits, therapy, medication, supplies, attendant hours, equipment with replacement intervals, home and vehicle modification, and the cost of each item where that person lives.
- 1Stabilize the medical picture
The plan is only as good as the prognosis it rests on. A plan written while function is still changing will be attacked, with reason.
- 2Build the plan item by item
A life care planner works from the treating records and the treating physicians, and prices each item with local vendor and provider costs rather than national averages.
- 3Apply the years
Each recurring item is multiplied by how long it is needed, using published life expectancy for the severity and age at injury.
- 4Reduce to present cash value
An economist converts the future schedule into today's dollars. The discount rate chosen changes the total by hundreds of thousands, which is why both sides retain economists.
- 5Add what the plan does not cover
Lost earning capacity and noneconomic damages are separate lines. Then the demand is checked against every layer of available coverage.
Present cash value is where large sums are won and lost. A lower discount rate means a larger sum today to fund the same future care, so the defense argues for a higher one. The argument sounds technical and moves more dollars than most liability disputes in the same case.
When the national average does not fit
An average is not a person. The data sheet says the figures vary greatly with education, neurological impairment, and pre-injury employment history. Someone with recurring pressure injuries, the skin wounds from sitting or lying in one position, or a complication that puts them back in the hospital every year, can pass the category average without being unusual.
Los Angeles is not the national average. Attendant wages, contractor rates, and accessible housing here are priced locally, and the plan should be built on quotes from this market rather than on a national table.
The money can run out before the years do. Care costs continue whether or not a defendant carries enough insurance, which is why the coverage investigation runs alongside the plan rather than after it. Our page on paralysis, paraplegia, and tetraplegia sets out how long that care is likely to be needed, and our Los Angeles catastrophic injury lawyer page covers cases where the available limits fall short of the plan.
These figures do not apply to an injury without cord involvement. A herniated disc or a fracture that spared the cord is priced from treatment records, not from a life care plan, and that difference is explained on back and neck injuries that are not cord injuries.
How to use these figures
The lifetime cost of a spinal cord injury, current and sourced, is between $2.1 million and $6.4 million for someone injured at 25, in 2025 dollars, before a dollar of lost income or noneconomic loss. Use the national table to test whether an offer is serious. Use a life care plan built on this person's chart and this market's prices to prove what the case is worth. Anyone who quotes a number without a dollar year, a discount rate, and a source is quoting nothing.