The financial consequences of a car crash are part of why the state requires that all drivers insure their vehicles. Anytime people get hurt in car crashes, the affected individual and their family members are at risk of financial hardship.
Motor vehicle collisions are a leading source of brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and many other severe traumatic injuries, like amputations. The lifetime care costs for the severe injury can reach millions of dollars in some cases.
When the person injured is a child, the potential for the injury to be highly expensive may be greater than in cases where an adult suffers a similar injury. Why are traumatic injuries to children often more expensive than similar injuries in adults?
They require specialized care
Pediatric medicine is different than adult medicine. Doctors have to take into consideration how a child’s future growth might affect their treatment. For example, a wound that would heal normally on an adult might cause disfiguring scars on children both because of the placement of the injury and of the child’s future growth.
It can cost tens of thousands of dollars and sometimes require multiple years of repeated treatments to help children overcome severe and disfiguring injuries.
Family may lose income
Another reason that severe injuries and children are so expensive is that their support needs will affect their entire family. Having a private nurse care for the child may not be the best situation. Such support is very expensive and may increase the child’s risk of abuse.
Many families choose to handle a child’s medical needs internally, which likely means that one parent will give up their career or both parents will make career sacrifices to share the responsibility of supporting the child. It can cost people far more than what insurance will pay for a child’s crash-related injuries to treat them and provide them with the care they require because of their condition.
You need to understand the lasting impacts your child’s injury will have on your family before you sit down with an insurance adjuster or make a decision about how you will pursue compensation. Exploring the likely consequences of a recent car crash can help you limit the lasting losses your family suffers.
