Compression garments are one of the least glamorous and most relentless expenses of burn recovery. Each custom-fitted garment typically costs between $500 and $2,000, and because they wear out — and because a healing body changes shape — they must be replaced every two to three months, often for a year or longer. Patients usually need more than one at a time. The bills are small individually and enormous in total.
A single custom-fitted burn compression garment generally runs from about $500 for a smaller piece — a glove, a sleeve, a facial mask — to $2,000 or more for a full torso vest or a bodysuit covering large areas. But the sticker price of one garment badly understates the real expense, because compression therapy is not a purchase, it is a subscription. Burn surgeons typically prescribe roughly twenty-three hours a day of continuous pressure over the maturing scar, which means the fabric is under constant strain and loses its therapeutic tension within weeks. As the elastic degrades, and as swelling subsides and the patient’s body changes shape during healing, each garment must be remeasured and replaced every two to three months.
Standard practice compounds the cost further. Because a garment must be washed daily and worn nearly around the clock, patients need at least two of every piece in rotation — one on the body, one in the wash. A patient with burns across the arms, hands, and torso might therefore be maintaining six or more custom garments at once, all on the same two-to-three-month replacement cycle, for twelve to twenty-four months. It is easy to see how a therapy that sounds inexpensive per item quietly accumulates into many thousands of dollars over the course of a recovery — and children, who outgrow garments as they develop, can need replacements even more often.
For an uninsured patient, or one whose plan excludes them, compression garments become a recurring out-of-pocket bill that arrives every couple of months with no end date in sight. Unlike a single surgery, there is nothing to negotiate down and no charity program that covers an ongoing supply. Some garment manufacturers offer modest discounts for multi-garment orders, but that does little against a two-year replacement schedule. This is why the central financial question for burn survivors is rarely “how do I keep paying for these?” and almost always “who caused this injury, and why is the cost of my recovery falling on me?” When a third party is at fault, the entire compression regimen — every garment, every replacement — is properly their financial responsibility.
If your burn was caused by a workplace safety failure, a defective product, a negligent driver, a gas explosion, or a landlord’s neglect, the law lets you recover the full cost of your compression therapy from the party responsible — not just the garments you have already bought, but the ones you will need over the entire prescribed course. Because the replacement schedule is predictable, this is one of the more straightforward future costs to document: a life care planner working with your burn team can calculate exactly how many garments you will need, at what interval, at what price, and an economist reduces that stream of costs to present value for your settlement demand.
That predictability is also why settling early is a costly mistake. If you accept an offer before your physician knows how long you will need compression therapy, the months of garments still ahead of you come straight out of your own pocket after you sign the release. At the same time, the clock is running: most states allow only a 2 to 3 year statute of limitations on burn injury claims. The sound approach is to retain an attorney early, let them handle the insurers and preserve the medical documentation, and settle only when your full compression regimen and the rest of your recovery are mapped out. See Compensation & Damages for how these recurring costs factor into case value, and review related expenses such as laser scar treatment and physical and occupational therapy, which typically run in parallel with compression therapy.
A single custom-fitted garment typically costs between $500 and $2,000, depending on how much of the body it covers — a glove or sleeve at the lower end, a full bodysuit at the higher end. The larger expense is the replacement cycle: because the elastic loses its therapeutic pressure within weeks and the healing body changes shape, garments must be remeasured and replaced every two to three months for a year or more. Since patients also need duplicates to rotate through washing, the total cost of compression therapy across a full recovery commonly reaches many thousands of dollars.
Typically every two to three months. Burn surgeons prescribe near-constant wear — often around twenty-three hours a day — so the fabric is under continuous strain and loses its effectiveness quickly. On top of that, swelling decreases and the body’s shape changes as scars mature, so each new garment must be custom-remeasured to maintain the right pressure. Most patients continue this cycle for twelve to twenty-four months, and children who are still growing may need replacements even more frequently. That recurring, predictable expense is exactly the kind of future cost a burn injury claim can capture in full.
Yes, and because the replacement schedule is so predictable, it is one of the more clearly calculable future costs in a burn case. A life care planner works with your burn team to project how many garments you will need, at what interval and price, and an economist reduces that total to present value for your settlement or verdict. The key is timing. Settling before your physician knows how long you will require compression therapy leaves those future garments out of the number, and once you sign a release you cannot recover them. Missing your state’s 2–3 year filing deadline forfeits the claim entirely. Early legal advice avoids both outcomes.
Find out whether the party responsible for your burn should be covering your entire compression regimen — past and future.
Settle too early and months of garment replacements come out of your pocket. Wait past your state’s 2–3 year deadline and you recover nothing. A free case review protects both ends of the timeline.
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