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Spinal Cord Injury
A spinal cord injury occurs every 49 minutes. Approximately
2 million people live with a spinal cord injury and there
are 11,000 new spinal cord injuries reported every year.
Spinal Cord Injury Costs
Spinal cord injuries are very costly. Initial hospitalization
and rehabilitation costs are almost $250,000 for each person.
Additional lifetime costs average $400,000 and can reach as
high as $2.1 million, depending on the level of injury. A
spinal cord injury is most commonly caused by car accidents,
violence, falls and sports.
Spinal cord injuries result in sensory and/or motor impairment
- affecting the spinal cord's ability to send and receive
messages from the brain. These messages normally go to the
systems that control motor, sensory, and autonomic (involuntary)
functions. A spinal cord injury can occur from trauma to the
vertebral column, or from trauma to the spinal cord itself.
In addition to movement and feeling, a spinal cord injury
affects other bodily functions, such as breathing, bowel and
bladder control.
Spinal Cord Injury Statistics
Which vertebrae of the spinal cord has been injured determines
the level of injury. The closer the injury is to the brain,
the greater the feeling and function loss will be. Paraplegia
(53% of SCI) results in a loss of feeling and movement in
the lower parts of the body. Quadriplegia, also known as tetraplegia
(47% of SCI) is paralysis in both the upper and lower parts
of the body (from the neck down). Since 1990, according to
the Spinal Cord Injury Information Network, the largest neurologic
category is incomplete tetraplegia (29.5%). This is followed
by complete paraplegia (27.3%), incomplete paraplegia (21.3%),
and complete tetraplegia (18.5%).
Only 52% of spinal cord injury individuals are covered by
private health insurance at time of injury. The average hospital
stay immediately after the injury is 15 days, at a price of
$140,000. This is followed by an average of 44 days in a rehabilitation
unit. Eight years after the injury, 63% of individuals who
have suffered a spinal cord injury are unemployed.
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