Life expectancy is one of the hardest numbers in a catastrophic injury case. Defense economists want a shorter horizon to shrink future damages; plaintiff economists use it as the multiplier that drives life-care costs and lost earning capacity. Catastrophic injuries can reduce life expectancy meaningfully, but the size of the reduction depends on injury type, level and completeness, age at injury, quality of care, and the secondary complications managed over time.
This FAQ covers what published actuarial data shows for spinal cord injury, severe TBI, and severe burns, and why life expectancy is a load-bearing number in Oklahoma damages litigation. Hasbrook & Hasbrook Personal Injury Lawyers can help build the medical and economic record needed to support full lifetime damages.
How Catastrophic Injuries Reduce Life Expectancy
The CDC’s National Vital Statistics System life tables show a 25-year-old in average health can expect to live into the late 70s. Catastrophic injury changes that baseline. After a severe SCI, severe TBI, or severe burn, the body fights a longer list of secondary medical problems for life, and the cumulative effect shows up in actuarial tables from injury-registry research centers.
Severity matters more than the diagnosis label. A complete cervical SCI at C1-C4 carries a sharply reduced life expectancy; an incomplete lumbar injury, a much smaller one. The medical record drives the number.
Spinal Cord Injury Life Expectancy by Level and Completeness
The most rigorous public data comes from the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center (NSCISC) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. NSCISC publishes annual statistical reports from the federally funded SCI Model Systems, following tens of thousands of patients since the early 1970s, and reports life expectancy by age at injury, neurological level, and completeness (ASIA Impairment Scale A versus incomplete grades).
The higher the lesion, the larger the gap from general-population norms; an incomplete injury at any level falls between the complete-tetraplegia and general-population lines. Older age at injury compresses the remaining years further.
| Injury Pattern | Effect on Life Expectancy | Major Drivers |
|---|---|---|
| Complete tetraplegia, high cervical (C1-C4) | Largest reduction | Ventilator dependence, respiratory infections, autonomic dysreflexia |
| Complete tetraplegia, low cervical (C5-C8) | Significant reduction | Respiratory complications, urinary tract infections, pressure injuries |
| Complete paraplegia (T1 and below) | Moderate reduction | Pressure injuries, sepsis, cardiovascular disease |
| Incomplete injury (any level, AIS B-D) | Smaller reduction | Lower secondary complication burden when function is preserved |
| Older age at injury (50+) | Compounds reduction | Pre-existing comorbidities, lower physiologic reserve |
Complete versus incomplete is the first thing a plaintiff economist pins down. See incomplete versus complete spinal cord injuries for AIS grading and the different paralysis patterns after a cord injury for tetraplegia, paraplegia, and incomplete patterns.
Severe TBI, Severe Burns, and Multiple Trauma
Severe TBI carries its own reduction. Research summarized by the MSKTC TBI collection shows moderate-to-severe TBI survivors carry elevated long-term mortality, with risk concentrated in the first several years post-injury and residual elevated risk thereafter. Late causes include seizure events, infections, falls, and cardiovascular complications. Background: CDC’s TBI resource.
The defensible TBI figure is drawn from peer-reviewed studies matched to the client by age, severity (Glasgow Coma Scale, post-resuscitation imaging, post-traumatic amnesia), and one-to-two-year functional outcome (Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended, Disability Rating Scale, FIM). See our pages on concussion vs. traumatic brain injury and cognitive testing after a brain injury.
Severe burns (TBSA, depth, inhalation injury, age) reduce life expectancy through cardiopulmonary strain, infection risk, and chronic wound complications. Peer-reviewed work indexed at PubMed tracks long-term mortality in major burn cohorts. See Oklahoma City burn injury claims and Oklahoma City catastrophic injury lawyer. Multiple-trauma patients can also carry reduced life expectancy when the complex causes lasting cardiopulmonary or neurologic compromise.
Why Life Expectancy Drives Future Damages in Oklahoma
Future medical care and lost earning capacity are recoverable economic damages in Oklahoma. Both calculations multiply an annual figure across the years the plaintiff is expected to live or work; move the life-expectancy number, and the present-value sum moves with it. The framework is set by 23 O.S. § 61. There is no statutory cap on economic damages.
For a 30-year-old paraplegic with $250,000 per year in projected life-care costs, a 10-year reduction in life expectancy can move present-value future medical damages by several million dollars. The same arithmetic applies to lost earning capacity. See life care plans and loss of earning capacity after a catastrophic injury.
How Plaintiff and Defense Fight Over the Number
Defense counsel almost always argues a shorter life expectancy than the baseline, typically pulling from older cohort studies not matched to the patient’s care plan. Plaintiff counsel responds with three lines of evidence:
- Updated actuarial tables. Current NSCISC, MSKTC, or American Burn Association data, not 1980s-1990s figures.
- Patient-matched studies. Peer-reviewed work matching age, severity, completeness, comorbidity, and access to care.
- Demonstrated care plan. A treating physician’s testimony that the documented plan reflects best-practice care.
Is the Defense Life-Expectancy Opinion Vulnerable?
- Source data older than 15 years? Argue obsolescence; medical advances have compressed mortality differences in SCI and severe TBI cohorts.
- Failed to match by injury level / completeness / GCS / TBSA? Argue the table does not describe this patient.
- Failed to credit the actual life-care plan? Argue the opinion assumes substandard care.
- No physiatry, pulmonology, or critical-care expert behind the opinion? Argue the economist lacks medical foundation to opine on mortality.
Daubert Standards for Life-Expectancy Testimony
Oklahoma courts evaluate expert reliability under Christian v. Gray, 2003 OK 10, which adopted the federal Daubert framework: testing, peer review, error rate, general acceptance, and reliable application. Life-expectancy testimony typically passes when:
- The expert relies on a published, peer-reviewed actuarial source (NSCISC, MSKTC, American Burn Association);
- The data is matched to the plaintiff by injury type, severity, and demographics;
- The opinion accounts for the documented care plan; and
- The expert can describe the sample size, follow-up window, and confidence interval underlying the table.
Defense challenges target failure on one of those four points. Where plaintiff relies on a generic textbook chart, exclusion is a real risk; where the defense relies on a 1990s study that does not reflect modern critical-care medicine, the same risk runs the other way.
Secondary Complications That Drive the Mortality Curve
- Respiratory complications. Pneumonia, atelectasis, ventilator-associated infections; leading cause of late mortality in high cervical SCI.
- Pressure injuries and sepsis. Stage III/IV ulcers progressing to osteomyelitis and bloodstream infection.
- UTIs and renal complications. Recurrent UTIs, neurogenic bladder failures, kidney involvement.
- Autonomic dysreflexia. An SCI cardiovascular emergency in lesions at T6 and above.
- Cardiovascular disease. Accelerated coronary disease in long-term SCI and post-burn cohorts.
- Seizure disorder and late neurologic events. In severe TBI with cortical injury.
- Falls. Higher rates in TBI survivors with balance and executive-function deficits.
When a defense economist projects a shortened life expectancy, plaintiff counsel asks which of these categories the projection assumes the plaintiff will fail to manage and whether that matches the care plan. That back-and-forth produces a defensible number.
How Our Firm Builds the Life-Expectancy Record
The work begins with the medical record. We pin down injury level, completeness, age, comorbidities, and one-to-two-year functional status before any economist runs a calculator, then retain a physiatrist or specialist to opine on lifetime course and a forensic economist to translate that into present-value future damages anchored on current actuarial sources. See future medical costs and structured settlements for catastrophic cases.
Our two-generation Oklahoma firm (Clay Hasbrook and his parents before him) has built catastrophic injury cases this way for many years. Call (405) 605-2426 or send case details through our online intake request.
Common Questions
Is there a single national table for SCI life expectancy?
No. NSCISC publishes projections by neurological level, completeness, and age at injury, updated as the cohort matures. No single number fits all SCI patients; the same is true for severe TBI and severe burns.
Does the life-expectancy gap improve over time?
The reporting periods show the gap between SCI and general-population life expectancy has narrowed since the 1970s as critical care, pulmonary management, urologic care, and rehabilitation have improved. The gap has not closed; high-cervical complete tetraplegia still shows the largest reduction.
Can the defense use it to reduce a verdict?
Yes. It is the standard defense lever because it shrinks both future medical and lost-earning-capacity sums. Plaintiff counsel counters with current actuarial sources, patient-matched studies, and care-plan testimony. Where the defense expert relies on outdated or unmatched data, an Oklahoma trial court applying Christian v. Gray may exclude or limit it.
How does life expectancy interact with structured settlements?
Structured settlements convert a lump-sum award into payments over an expected lifetime. Where life expectancy is reduced, structured options can include a guaranteed-period component so heirs receive remaining payments if the plaintiff lives a shorter time. See personal injury structured settlements.
Should a plaintiff retain a vocational expert too?
For lost earning capacity, yes. A vocational expert testifies about what work the plaintiff can perform after the injury and at what wage; the economist translates that into present-value loss across a working-life expectancy reduced by the injury. See vocational rehabilitation in injury cases.
Where can families read more?
The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation publishes patient-facing resources on long-term life with paralysis, and NSCISC public reports include statistical summaries for clinicians and families.
