The impact of a severe brain injury goes far beyond the initial trauma. There are typically long-term and life-altering implications for the individual and their family. The need for rehabilitation, equipment and care, along with many other additional demands, can make maintaining a good quality of life difficult.

At CL Medilaw, we work with clients and families navigating these challenges every day. Through our work, we see the real value of financial compensation—not as a windfall, but as a necessary foundation for changing lives. Below we have set out items which are typically included within a compensation claim for a client that has suffered a brain injury and how these things can help ensure that they continue to live a long and fulfilling life.

1. Accommodation needs

For many individuals with a brain injury, the resulting physical and cognitive impairments lead to their existing home becoming unsuitable for their needs. They can often experience mobility issues, impacting their ability to walk and balance, requiring the use of wheelchairs and walking aids. This can make stairs and narrow hallways a barrier to freely moving around their house. The cognitive impacts of a brain injury can also require modifications to improve the individual’s safety and reduce any risks of harm around the home.

Depending on the type of impairments a client has, typical adaptations include things such as ground-floor living, accessible bathrooms with features like grab rails and wet rooms, wider doorways to accommodate wheelchairs, or even purpose-built housing designed to meet very specific medical and accessibility needs.

At CL Medilaw, we have experience with assisting brain-injured individuals and their families obtain the accommodation and housing adaptations they need to live a fulfilling life.

2. Care & Assistance

Brain injured individuals can often require ongoing care, which can be expensive and difficult to arrange. Depending on the severity of the injury, 24/7 care may be needed from a professional team. There will often need to be assistance with daily activities such as dressing, bathing, feeding, and medication management. There may also be behavioural and cognitive challenges meaning that specialist care staff will need to be hired who have the requisite knowledge to manage the individual’s difficulties.

A claim will typically cover salaries for carers and potentially a case manager to coordinate the care package. Professional care teams can include nurses, therapists, and social workers, coordinated to ensure the person with a brain injury lives as comfortably and independently as possible. This ongoing support is vital to help them manage the increased difficulties they face and live a fulfilling life.

3. Therapy and Rehabilitation

Therapy and rehabilitation are essential for maintaining and improving a brain-injured individual’s quality of life and helping them to fulfil their potential. This can include physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, and psychological support to help manage emotional and behavioural changes.

Families can often find it difficult to access such therapies under the NHS due to a lack of funding and long waiting lists. A compensation claim can resolve this by providing funds to allow this rehabilitation to be accessed on a private basis, ensuring early access and consistency, which is vital for progress and improvement.

You can read more about the types of therapy available after a brain-injury, and how these can be included as part of a clinical negligence claim, here.

4. Education

Another item which can be included in a claim for a brain injured child is education expenses. This can encompass the costs of special educational needs (SEN) assessments and appeals to the SEND tribunal, and access to one-on-one teaching assistants, speech and language therapy, and specialised learning resources. This can help a child access education in a manner which is suited to their individual needs and assists their development.

In addition, compensation can cover the costs of attending specialist schools or education facilities, which have the necessary resources to meet the unique needs of a brain-injured child. This can include tuition fees, transportation and adaptations to the learning environment.

5. Loss of Earnings

A brain injury can often affect an individual’s cognitive functions, physical abilities, and emotional resilience, limiting, if not completely restricting, their ability to work and earn a living. This will result in a financial loss to the individual.

Compensation for loss of earnings helps bridge the financial gap caused by reduced income, providing vital support to cover everyday living expenses, ensuring financial stability, and helping individuals and families plan for the future without the burden of lost income.

6. Equipment and Assistive Technology

Specialist equipment—from wheelchairs and walking aids to communication devices and computer technology—can be essential for everyday life for those with a brain injury, helping them to obtain independence and to interact with the world and their loved ones. For instance, speech-generating devices can help those who struggle with verbal communication to express their needs and participate socially.

A claim for assistive technology can include the cost of implementing accessible environmental controls within the home. Allowing an individual to control things such as light switches, televisions, music systems, doors and telephones in ways that they could not do otherwise. Depending on the user, controls can be set up to be operated by an individual’s hand, foot, head, or voice, to name just a few examples. This can allow an individual access these utilities when otherwise they would not have been able to, helping them to maintain and develop their independence.

Such items can be expensive, especially when factoring in all the other additional costs a brain-injured person and their family will incur throughout their lives. As part of a legal claim, the costs of this equipment can be claimed, providing a brain-injured patient with access to tools that make life easier and more fulfilling so they can live as independently as possible. Ongoing maintenance and future upgrades to this technology are also covered in compensation claims to ensure the equipment remains functional and relevant as needs change over time.

7. Holiday and Leisure Costs

Holidays and recreational activities are often more costly for children with severe brain injuries and their families. They will typically require specialist equipment, adapted transportation and supervision during long journeys to ensure their safety and comfort. They will also need access to accommodation adapted to their needs, which can increase the cost of holidays, limiting their accessibility for those with a brain injury and their families.

At CL Medilaw we recognise that access to holiday and leisure activities can have a profound impact on a brain-injured individual, allowing them to make and maintain social connections, improve their mental health, and live a fulfilled life. We therefore consider ensuring access to these activities as a vital part of a claim, as well as an individual’s rehabilitation and quality of life. You can read our previous article about how we look to claim holidays and recreational activities as a part of a claim for brain-injured individuals here.

8. Case Management and Ongoing Support

The impact of a brain injury is often lifelong, necessitating ongoing care, support, therapy and treatment, which can be very time consuming. This is why we can often look to claim the cost of a case manager to assist with scheduling/attending what can be numerous medical appointments as well as undertaking long-term planning to ensure they get the care and support they need and assisting family members in juggling what can be numerous and significant demands.

A Case Manager will often liaise between healthcare professionals, families and social services to ensure that the required care/treatment programmes are in place and that they are adapted when appropriate to meet changing needs. This can help avoid parts of an individual’s care being overlooked, reduce stress on families and achieve better outcomes for the brain-injured individual.

Changing Lives in Practice – Elan’s Story

Elan is one of our clients who we helped pursue a clinical negligence claim in relation to the circumstances of her birth, which caused her to suffer hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) and develop spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, gross and fine motor development delay, positional kyphosis and scoliosis of the spine.

Elan is a true inspiration to everyone she meets, both those with and without a brain injury. She has not allowed her condition to prevent her from pursuing a fulfilling life, including her goal to become a Paralympian.

We invite you to watch Elan’s story below to see how making a compensation claim has truly changed her life, and you can read about it further here.

A brain injury causes a host of difficulties, physically, emotionally and financially, but with the right support and compensation, individuals can regain independence, dignity, and the ability to live a fulfilling life. At CL Medilaw, we are committed to making that possible and changing lives of our clients who have suffered these injuries.

Amy Milner is a Senior Associate at CL Medilaw who works closely with many families with children who have acquired a brain injury due to negligent medical care. CL Medilaw are dedicated to changing the lives of their clients by making legal matters as straight forward as possible and securing early provision of support to really make a difference to the families they represent. You can contact us either by email at [email protected] or by telephone on 0345 2410 154.

Please note: Any views expressed are those of the individual and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cerebra.

Although we are grateful to receive support from a number of corporate sponsors, we do not endorse any specific organisation. If you are seeking legal advice, we encourage you to contact a number of experienced solicitors for an initial discussion before selecting a firm.