Dog bite injuries can be very serious. Despite many people believing that a dog’s mouth is relatively clean, there are still massive quantities of germs in a dog’s mouth that can mean trouble for you if you are bitten. Unfortunately, dog attacks are much more common than you might realize. Consider these statistics.
Each year in the United States, there are around 4.5 million dog attacks on humans. This comes out to one dog bite every 75 seconds. In fact, almost 1,000 people seek out medical care in an emergency room for dog bites each day.
The average hospital cost of a dog bite injury is around $18,200. The annual monetary loss for all dog bite victims is $1 billion at the most conservative estimate, although one estimate has this figure at more than $2 billion.
Of the people who are bitten each year, about 20 percent will have to deal with an infection at the bite wound. Around 28,000 dog bite victims had to have reconstructive surgery in 2015 because of the attack.
Nearly one-third of homeowner’s insurance claim dollars are for dog bites. These incidents cost insurers more than $600 million in 2016. This doesn’t include the money that Medicaid and Medicare paid out for dog bite injuries.
For the victims of dog attacks, the road to recovery is often long. You might even suffer permanent disfigurement. One thing that you should remember is that you don’t have to sit back and accept financial ruin because of the incident. Instead, you can seek compensation to help cover the costs of the bite, including your lost wages and the medical bills.
Source: DogsBite.org, “Quick statistics,” accessed June 02, 2017