Royal Navy career ended by life changing injury

Our client

Our client, Elliott Courtman, joined the navy at age 21, in 2018. He showed incredible promise over the following two years and was deployed on the Queen Elizabeth carrier in June 2020. Whilst completing a routine task on a helicopter, Elliott suffered a life-changing injury.

Elliott lost his left eye after it was pierced by a helicopter aerial, while he was lashing it to the deck. As the aerial did not have a foam cover – something that only became mandatory after Elliott's injury- and it pierced his eyeball, leaving him with a catastrophic injury. In an effort to return to a sense of normality, Elliott went back to work after a few weeks. Elliott said: “In times like this, you really need someone at work looking out for you, to say ‘take some time off, you’re not OK’, but that didn’t happen. I went to a very bad place through trying to pretend everything was alright, but really, I was far from alright.

“There is a culture in the Navy where you just get on with things, crack on with your job, and that’s part of the problem.”

Initially, medics did try to save Elliott’s eye by sewing it back together, in hopes of him regaining some sight. However, due to a severe infection, Elliot had to have his eye removed in December 2021.

After this career-ending injury, Elliott suffered from poor mental health saying he had been in a ‘very bad place’ after the accident. Medics told Elliott to download an app for mental health support and in response to this advice, he is calling for more support from the Navy and MoD (Ministry of Defence), to help deal with psychological trauma like his.

Elliott said: “I think there needs to be recognition that we need support, particularly after something like what happened to me. I was told to download a mental health app which could help me – but I my eye has just been skewered. I’m not sure that’s really going to work”.

“Young men who experience trauma probably don’t know what to do – and that’s why proper support is so important and really needs to be there.”

How Slater and Gordon helped

Elliott instructed Natasha Orr, Military Team Leader and Senior Associate in our Industrial Disease team.

Natasha secured rapid access to private medical treatment for Elliott, and therapy to address his trauma. In addition to this, Natasha negotiated a settlement from the MoD for Elliott.

Talking about his experience after contacting us, Elliott said: “All of a sudden it was like someone understood. I felt listened to. As soon as Natasha got involved, I was no longer expected to just get on with stuff – it was like help had come at last, some of which I probably didn’t even realise I needed.”

With a personal military background, Natasha has specialist military knowledge and skills to deal with the complexities and uniqueness of these cases.

“After being through such unimaginable trauma, it is imperative that our service personnel are supported mentally as well as physically – but that is something that is still being neglected,” Natasha says.

“Ambitious, driven young sailors like Elliott want to get back to work as soon as possible, even after something as horrific as this, but clearly that is not always in their best interests. Our Armed Forces have a duty of care to our service men and women, and that must extend into protecting them psychologically too.

“We are very pleased to have been able to secure the treatment and therapy Elliott so badly needed, and to secure a settlement which will support him and his family through what remain difficult times.”

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