- Joan Rivet, 82, was trapped in her bathtub for nine days after a fall at home in North Carolina
- She lived alone after her husband's death and could not reach the phone to call for help
- Rivet drank water by turning the faucet with her foot and endured pain while trapped
A US senior citizen had a miraculous escape after being trapped in her bathtub for nine days. Joan Rivet, 82, was getting ready to sleep at her home in Clyde, about 150 miles outside Charlotte, North Carolina, on June 1 when she tripped in the bathroom and fell backwards into her bathtub, with the shower curtain and rod falling on her as well.
Rivet quickly realised that the severity of her injury left her completely trapped inside the tub. Since losing her husband in 2023, she had lived entirely alone, with no one in the house to hear her cries. The telephone was in the other room, completely out of reach. Desperate, she screamed for help as her cat, Phoebe, the home's only other occupant, meowed right alongside her.
“My first thought was, ‘oh my goodness, what did I do?'” Rivet told The Mountaineer, adding that hours quickly turned into days as she slipped in and out of consciousness from her injuries.
Rivet, who had no children and was not working, said she was not sure if help would come but remained optimistic that it would arrive.
“I'd see it get dark and lighter, dark and lighter. I lost track, to be honest, of the days. There were times I was crying out and I said, ‘Lord, help, help, help release the pain,'” she said.
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Rivet revealed that she fought through the pain to turn the bathtub faucet with her foot, allowing her to drink the water by splashing it against her face.
Help arrived after Rivet's brother, Bill Lesko, did not hear from her for several days. Living five hours away in Georgia, a worried Lesko reached out to her sister's neighbour, who told him that her car was in the driveway. Subsequently, he contacted the Haywood County Sheriff's Office to request a wellness check.
When officers finally arrived at her home on June 10, they found Rivet semi-conscious in the tub and rushed her to the hospital. She arrived with severe dehydration and bed sores from spending so much time positioned in the tub. Hospital staff treated her with IVs and administered liquid food to her while she recovered.
Rivet said she does not remember being rescued but has since slowly regained her strength. The ordeal has prompted Rivet to plan a move to Georgia to live with her brother.
