Hospitalizations to treat pediatric gun injuries are expensive, and US taxpayers and the poor are bearing the price, according to a new study.

The average cost of initial hospitalization to treat pediatric gun injuries in the United States is about $13,000 per patient, according to a new study published in PLOS ONE. A total of about $109 million is spent on such hospitalizations in the country each year. The figures don’t capture the total costs of rehabilitating young gunshot victims, which can be much higher.

Research into the financial, health, and social costs of firearm injuries in the United States has focused mostly on adults, says senior author Stephanie Chao, assistant professor of surgery at Stanford University. However, nine of every 10 firearm injuries to children worldwide occur in the United States, according to a 2015 study published in the American Journal of Medicine. “We really need a better picture of the overall toll of firearms on children,” Chao says.

Although gun deaths from school shootings and other mass-casualty incidents are widely publicized, most pediatric gun injuries occur less publicly, often when children accidentally discharge firearms they locate and handle without their parents’ knowledge. “This takes a horrible toll on families and children’s lives, and there is a financial toll,” Chao says.

Read the full article about the cost of children's gun injuries by Erin Digitale at Futurity.