On the popular Fox drama “House,” a renegade doctor played by Hugh Laurie performs some of the most bizarre and unorthodox procedures on his patients — most of whom have the rarest medical conditions — regardless of cost.

But our paralysis attorneys in San Diego want to know how expensive would these treatments be in real life?  NPR author sought out to answer: “What is the average cost in medical bills if your doctor was Dr. Gregory House? Specifically, spinal cord injury treatments.

How much would your medical bills be if you were treated by TV’s Dr. House?

We ask these questions, because we know that when you experience a spinal cord injury, costs can be astronomical.  Medical bills can pile up from trips to the doctor, physical therapy, and life-long care that is given once you leave the hospital.

On top of all of that, your cost of living once you become paralyzed greatly increases.  Imagine if you damaged your spinal cord in a strange fashion and they called in Dr. House to treat you.

Here’s a bare bones breakdown on what your bill might look like, assuming the most expensive techniques are employed by House:

  • $2,000 for magnetic resonating image (MRI) scan.
  • $800 for computer axial tomography (CT) scan.
  • $50,000 for a spinal fusion procedure.
  • $140,000 for 15-day hospital stay in acute care units immediately following your spinal cord injury and 44-day rehabilitation stay.

Total ballpark cost of your medical bill:  $192,800 and that’s included in the average lifetime costs for those who injure their spinal cords after the age of 25 ($428,000 for paraplegics, $1.35 million for quadriplegics).

What about insurance?  Does that cover a portion of your tab?  Those living with paralysis and have private health care coverage at the time of their spinal cord injury usually get 52 percent of their medical bills covered, but even with that coverage your cost for the House visit is around the $92, 544 range.  That’s a lot of money for anybody!

Hopefully you’ll only need to see House on the television and not in real life, but if you should find yourself with a spinal cord injury that was caused by someone else and in need of financial assistance, our San Diego firm is here to help.

Contact our bilingual offices as soon as possible following a spinal cord injury at 1-858-551-2090 or please click here for a free consultation with an experienced paralysis attorney in San Diego.