Locked-in syndrome (LIS) is costly in all aspects. Establishing damages in a locked-in syndrome medical malpractice case is integral to ensuring you have the funds to care for your loved one long-term.
What Damages Are Common in Locked-In Syndrome Cases?
Locked-in syndrome typically means decades or even a lifetime of round-the-clock care. This typically includes the following:
- Respiratory support as many people with locked-in syndrome are unable to breathe on their own
- Tube feeding as most people with LIS are unable to swallow on their own and need to be fed through a tube to prevent aspiration (sucking food into the airway or lungs) or aspiration pneumonia
- Supportive therapy to prevent bedsores, pneumonia, deep vein thrombosis (blood clots), and urinary tract infections
- Physical therapy to stretch muscles and prevent contractures (the tightening and shortening of muscles)
- Eye care to prevent dryness, corneal ulceration, and infection
- Hospital bed and medical devices, if you choose to care for your loved one at home
Depending on whether your loved one receives care in a facility or at home, you could be looking at paying tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for this care alone. The national median costs in 2025 for care at a facility were approximately $115,000 for a semi-private room and $129,000 for a private room, according to CareScout. The median hourly rate for a private duty nurse is $90 an hour. Depending on where you live, this cost could be substantially higher.
Costs Go Beyond Treatment
However, it’s important to note that locked-in syndrome doesn’t just lead to medical bills. People living with locked-in syndrome typically have one way to communicate: through their eye movements. For people with LIS to verbalize their wants and needs, they need some sort of communication device. These can be relatively cheap, for things like letter boards, or very expensive for technology like brain-computer interfaces.
People with LIS are often left unable to work. You can recover their lost wages and lost earning capacity for the effects of LIS on their ability to make a living. You may also be able to recover the lost wages and lost earning capacity for a loved one who left their job to become a full-time caregiver.
The costs aren’t just financial. People with LIS can experience physical pain and mental anguish, which can be made worse by an inability to communicate with caregivers. Depression and anxiety are common with LIS patients, which can contribute to lost quality of life.
A locked-in syndrome lawyer in your area can establish and fight for all your damages.
How Do I Prove Locked-In Syndrome Damages?
To establish locked-in syndrome damages, we need your loved one’s medical records and any receipts or invoices for costs related to the LIS. Because locked-in syndrome typically results in catastrophic, lifelong injury, building a strong claim requires a complete picture of how the condition has changed your loved one’s life and what care they will need going forward.
Medical and Treatment Records
We’ll gather hospital records from the initial diagnosis, imaging studies (i.e., MRI/CT scans showing the brainstem injury), neurologist and physiatrist evaluations, rehabilitation records, and notes from speech, occupational, and physical therapists. These records establish the diagnosis, the cause of the injury, and the prognosis, all of which are critical to proving the extent of damages.
Cost and Billing Documentation
This includes:
- Hospital and ICU bills
- Long-term care facility or in-home nursing invoices
- Costs for adaptive equipment, such as eye-tracking communication devices, specialized wheelchairs, ventilators, and feeding tube supplies
- Home modification expenses, such as ramps, lift systems, and widened doorways
- Transportation costs for medical appointments
Future Care Costs
Because locked-in syndrome usually requires lifelong, around-the-clock care, we often work with life care planners and medical economists to project future costs, including future surgeries, equipment replacement, attendant care, and therapy, so the claim reflects not just past expenses but what your loved one will need for the rest of their life.
Lost Ability to Work
If your loved one was working before the injury, we’ll use employment and tax records along with vocational expert testimony to calculate lost wages and lost future earning capacity.
Pain, Suffering, and Loss of Enjoyment of Life
Because someone with locked-in syndrome is cognitively aware but unable to move or speak, courts and insurers increasingly recognize the severe psychological and physical suffering involved. Witness statements from family members, caregivers, and medical staff who interact with your loved one regularly can help illustrate their day-to-day experience and quality of life.
Loss of Consortium
Spouses and family members may also be entitled to damages for the loss of companionship, support, and the relationship they had with their loved one before the injury.
The more thorough the documentation, the stronger the claim, so we encourage families to keep every medical bill, caregiving receipt, and record of how the condition has affected daily life, even seemingly minor ones.
Proving That Negligence Led to Your Loved One’s Locked-In Syndrome
Damages only matter if you can prove malpractice caused the locked-in syndrome. This means showing that a healthcare provider owed your loved one a standard of care, breached that duty, and that the breach directly caused the brainstem injury.
Common causes of medical malpractice-related LIS include:
- A delayed stroke diagnosis
- A failure to diagnose a stroke
- Failure to recognize a basilar artery occlusion
- A missed vertebral artery dissection
We’ll review imaging, lab results, and physician notes for the moments where the diagnosis or treatment fell short, such as whether stroke symptoms were dismissed, treatment was delayed, or a known complication was mismanaged.
Because these cases rely on highly technical medical judgment, we work with neurologists and other qualified experts to establish what the standard of care required, how the provider deviated from it, and how that deviation led directly to your loved one’s locked-in syndrome.
Moving Forward After an LIS Diagnosis
Locked-in syndrome changes everything for a family, financially, emotionally, and practically. Proving both the malpractice and the full scope of damages takes careful documentation and the right experts on your side. If your loved one is living with LIS and you suspect a medical error played a role, we are here to listen, answer your questions, and help you understand what options may be available.
Call Newsome Law when you are ready to get answers.