Eye Injury Personal Injury Claim

Jane had been working as a cleaner for a number of years. As part of Jane’s role, she needed to mop the dining areas of the office. To do this, she was required to use a cleaning gel solution which mixed with water.

As Jane poured the gel solution into the bucket, it splashed up into her eye. Jane immediately felt discomfort and irritation in her eye which persisted after rinsing thoroughly with water. She then sought medical assistance from the nurse, who instructed Jane to go to hospital for treatment. Whilst at the hospital, Jane’s eye was cleaned with a saline solution. 

Jane had already raised concerns that she would like some protective glasses to ensure that the solution didn’t splash back into her face after pouring into the bucket. However, this seemingly appeared to fall on deaf ears.

Unfortunately, Jane continued to suffer from a painfully sore eye as well as blurred vision for around two weeks, she also suffered from continuous headaches.

How Tinsdills Helped

Jane came to us to pursue an injury at work claim for compensation, feeling particularly frustrated as Jane had already raised a concern with her employer that this incident may happen.

We felt that had the employer provided her with correct personal protective equipment (PPE) such as protective eye wear, her eye injury would have been prevented.

We pursued a claim against Jane’s employer for breach of the following:

• Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (“The Work Equipment Regulations”)
• The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (“The COSHH Regulations”)
• The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 (“The Protective Equipment Regulations”)

Jane’s Employer failed to respond to the claim and so we issued court proceedings after obtaining an expert medical record from a Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon. Court proceedings were served and still no response from Jane’s Employer and judgement was entered by the Court.

Outcome

The Employer instructed Solicitors and denied liability; however we successfully reached a settlement and secured £1,750 in damages plus Jane’s legal fees.