The pain and suffering inflicted in an accident can have serious long term implications. However, there are few ailments that can cause as much dramatic change to an individual’s life than a spinal cord injury. Though accidents that cause spinal damage may seem few and far between in Ontario, the truth of the matter may surprise many people.

The organization known as Spinal Cord Injury Ontario (SCIO) has posted a variety of statistics relating to the condition. Some of the numbers are shocking. Incredibly, 600 spinal cord injuries are reported in Ontario every year. In 2010, there were more than 33,000 Ontarians dealing with spinal cord injuries, and that number will surely have grown since then.

According to SCIO, it can take an average of two to three years for a victim of a spinal cord injury to regain independence. This is achieved through intense social, psychological and physical rehabilitation, on top of extensive hospitalization. The overall financial burden associated with spinal cord injury in Canada is an estimated $3.6 billion every year. Half of that figure is accounted for by health care costs.

The most common causes of spinal injuries in Ontario are motor vehicle accidents and unintentional falls. Together, these two factors make up 86 percent of the total. Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, more than two-thirds of spinal cord injury victims are male.

The evidence suggests that the majority of spinal cord injuries occur in incidents that are beyond the victim’s control. The enormous costs associated with treating such injuries on a national level hint at the individual burdens faced by those who are afflicted and their families.

For anyone who has been critically injured in an accident, the ongoing costs are often too high to bear without compensation. By consulting with a personal injury lawyer, one may be able to achieve a financial settlement sufficient to allow life to progress and healing to continue after a serious accident.