A university student suffered a heart attack when she was electrocuted while she posed for a picture at a park in London.
Anastasija Grigorjeva collapsed when her foot slipped through a grate in St James’s Park in July.
The 21-year-old physiotherapy student had to be pulled to safety by her sister Snezana and her sister’s boyfriend before paramedics rushed to the scene and restarted her heart.
It happened while Ms Grigorjeva, from Latvia, was visiting her sister in London while on holiday.
Snezana is now helping her sister to bring about legal action following the incident which caused her to spend three weeks in intensive care, suffered brain damage and left her with a three-month gap in her memory and lasting nerve damage in her foot.
She told The Standard how they had given her sister a Polaroid camera for her birthday and that she wanted to take a photo on the metal grate in the park as it was lit up as it was after dark.
When she stood on it, she was electrocuted and got her foot in the grate.
‘I suddenly heard my sister whimper and looked around and she was passed out on the floor and her foot was in the grate’, she said.
Anastasija Grigorjeva, pictured, suffered a heart attack and collapsed when her foot slipped through a gate in St James’s Park in July
Snezana said Ms Grigorjeva, pictured, continues to suffer from memory loss from May to July this year
The incident happened in St James’s Park, pictured, in July this year
At first, she thought she might have broken her foot but she wasn’t making any noises.
When she touched her hand she said she felt a ‘tingling in my hand’.
She was rescued by the two, and her sister’s boyfriend, Vladlens Mazalevskis, began performing CPR on her, while she called an ambulance.
As she tried to find the paramedics, she remembered ‘running around in a panic not knowing if she was alive or dead’.
She said Ms Grigorjeva continues to suffer from memory loss from May to July this year.
‘Sometimes she doesn’t remember yesterday and sometimes she can’t recall what happened in the morning. It is deeply affecting her life.’
Snezana added her sister also can’t bend her foot which is means she can’t walk properly and is making the student feel ‘really upset’.
The 21-year-old physiotherapy student, pictured, had to be pulled to safety by her sister Snezana and her sister’s boyfriend
Following the incident a Health and Safety Executive launched an investigation led to no further action.
This has made Snezana furious as she said ‘somebody needs to be held responsible for what happened to my sister’.
She added: ‘She was in a popular park in central London and this should never have been allowed to happen.’
A specialist personal injury lawyer from Osbornes Law, Magdalena Knez, said the student’s life has been ‘changed forever’.
She urged Royal Parks to admit liability on this matter ‘a soon as possible’.
A Royal Parks spokesperson told the newspaper its thoughts remain with the person involved and said that St James’s Park ‘provides a safe environment for all’.
