A Royal Navy technician who lost his left eye in a freak helicopter accident says he wants to change the forces' 'just get on with it' culture. Elliott Courtman, 27, had his life turned upside down in June 2020 when a helicopter antenna pierced his eyeball.
He had been working a nightshift and was tying the aircraft to the deck of the UK’s flagship Queen Elizabeth carrier when the antenna – which had no protective covering – plunged into his left eye socket.
At first Elliott, from Chichester, Sussex, did not realise the severity of his injury. He said: “Initially, I thought I must have cut my eyelid open. I had a big cut across my face – but I didn’t even consider it could have been my eyeball.
“I tried to take my contact lens out but I couldn’t, but everyone around me kept reassuring me that it wasn’t that bad and I’d be fine. However, when I got to the hospital and the specialist looked at my eye, that’s when I knew. The look on his face told me everything I needed to know. My whole life had changed in a split second.”
Elliott had completed the task which derailed his life many times before, but on this occasion, he was suffering from significant fatigue – having worked eight-hour shifts for more than 50 days without a single day off. The helicopter antenna which impaled his eye also had no protective foam cover – something which has become mandatory since his accident.
Surgeons initially tried to sew Elliott's eye back together and he was able to return to work wearing an eye patch in the hopes that he might regain his sight. However, he later suffered a serious infection – and was forced to have his eye removed in December 2021.
The impact on Elliott's depth perception meant officers had no choice but to medically discharge him – resulting in an abrupt and heartbreaking end to his navy career.
“It was absolutely devastating," he said. “Up until this point, my time in the navy couldn’t really have gone any better. I was promoted to Leading Hand as fast as it was possible to be – and won Best Recruit twice. Everything was going great.
“Then all of a sudden my life changed. I lost my career. Before this, I was one of the most confident people you could meet. But I lost all that. I felt totally trapped.”
After the accident, Elliott pursued legal action against the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and eventually secured a settlement for his injury, his lawyers said. However, he is now calling on the Government to do more to support soldiers who have suffered this sort of trauma while serving the country.
He said: “It has been the worst time. From the moment that happened, my life changed forever, but I tried to carry on as if it hadn’t.
“I didn’t want to deal with what had happened and so I blocked it out completely. I went back to work a matter of weeks afterwards, but looking back, I was hardly in a fit state of mind to do that.
“However, I desperately wanted to get back to normality and to continue to progress in the career I had worked so hard for, and there was no-one telling me I shouldn’t. In times like this, you really need someone at work looking out for you, for someone to say: ‘Take some time off – you’re not okay'.
“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.”
When it became clear he could no longer serve in the navy, Mr Courtman suffered another hit to his mental health but found the support was not there. On one occasion, he was simply advised by medics to download an app.
He said: “I think there needs to be recognition from the MoD that we need support – particularly after something like what happened to me. I was just told to download a mental health app which could help me – but I thought: ‘My eye has just been skewered. I’m not sure that’s really going to work’.
“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. 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.”
The MoD would not comment on Mr Courtman’s case specifically but said it works hard to “ensure the safety of everyone who serves”.
A spokesperson said: “We work hard to ensure the safety of everyone who serves. Where there is proven legal liability, compensation is paid. It would be inappropriate to comment further on an individual case.”
Meanwhile, Elliott's lawyer Natasha Orr, military team leader at Slater and Gordon, said: “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.
“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.”
Ms Orr, who also comes from an Armed Forces background, helped Elliott get access to therapy and private medical treatment – and secured him a settlement from the MoD.
She said: “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.”
