Compensation after Negligence Causes an Eye Injury at Work

Adrian was at work when he suffered severe injury to his eye as a result of the Defendant’s negligence. He was able to recover compensation for his injury and financial losses.

Barratts Solicitors acted for Adrian. He was working as a service engineer when he received a call out in the middle of the night in January 2009. Adrian was asked to attend a plant room at Loughborough University.

When he arrived, Adrian was given the keys to the plant room so he found the door, opened it, and stepped through into the building. What Adrian did not know was that was not a door but a hatch door within a door. The area was not well lit and Adrian couldn’t see the ledge so he tripped. Someone had left a trolley just inside the entrance to the building. Unfortunately, as Adrian fell forward the handle of the trolley went into his left eye. The insurers of the owners of the building admitted they were liable.

Over the following 3 years Adrian underwent numerous operations. He was looked after by both the ophthalmological and maxillo-facial departments. He even had to have surgery to the eye that was not injured to restrict its movement. Doctors wanted to match the amount of movement to the movement in the injured eye more closely. They hope this would reduce Adrian’s double vision.

Calculating Adrian’s compensation

Adrian lost significant earnings by way of overtime, standby and call out payments. Unfortunately his employers would not verify this fact. In the end, Adrian was awarded £35,000 in compensation. This reflected the fact he had lost a significant amount of income. The expert care received meant that on-going residual difficulties have not prevented Adrian from continuing to work and enjoying leisure activities. Our Personal Injury team needed to wait until Adrian had finished his treatment before we could assess his final position. After that we agreed a sum for compensation. Adrian was glad the case was over and pleased with the outcome.