3 ways a traumatic brain injury can affect your family finances

By Brian Egolf

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Personal Injury

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Last Modified on May 05, 2025

The human brain is an incredible organ that manages everything from your sleep schedule and body temperature to your personality. If someone suffers a traumatic brain injury (TBI), they could develop a wide array of symptoms.

Exactly how a TBI presents will depend on the location of the injury and the severity of the TBI, in addition to the unique neurology of the person with the injury. Someone in your family could develop a TBI in numerous ways. They could get hurt in a car crash or knocked down as a pedestrian. They could fall in a store or off of scaffolding while working.

A brain injury that affects someone you love will likely have lasting financial implications for your family.

Brain injuries often require expensive medical care

The more serious the brain injury is at first, the more trauma care someone may require. Severe TBIs often require surgery to relieve the growing pressure on the brain. Medical professionals may put induce a medical coma to allow the body and brain a better opportunity to heal.

A brain injury will likely lead to rehabilitation expenses. In extreme cases, someone may even require life-support machinery indefinitely because of the symptoms of their TBI.

A brain injury will reduce someone’s earning potential

In a scenario where your loved one recovers somewhat from a brain injury, they may be able to care for themselves at home and eventually go back to work. Unfortunately, the more severe the brain injury was, the more likely it is that your loved one cannot go back to a skilled or educated position at a company.

Whether their job requires manual dexterity or a great memory, the symptoms of the TBI may keep someone from continuing the same career they had before their injuries. Their earning potential may drop substantially as a result.

A family member may have to stay home to provide constant care

Those with moderate-to-severe TBIs may require constant medical monitoring for their own safety. They may need help with daily tasks like feeding themselves and going to the bathroom.

Families sometimes find that the best solution to ensure a high standard of care is to have someone in the family stay home to provide support to the person with the TBI. That means not just losing out on the income of the person who got hurt, but also the family member who provides care.

Other expenses may include retrofitting your house to accommodate mobility devices and life-support machinery, as well as ongoing medical support for your loved one for the rest of their life. Establishing a realistic idea about the financial impact of a brain injury can help you handle your insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit related to the cause of the injury.

About the author: Brian Egolf

Partner at Egolf + Ferlic + Martinez, LLC

Brian Egolf is a Partner at Egolf + Ferlic + Martinez, LLC in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He represents clients in personal injury, medical malpractice, wrongful death, whistleblower, and complex civil litigation matters. He is admitted to practice in New Mexico and before the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico. Brian earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of New Mexico School of Law and his B.S. from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.

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