An 82-year-old North Carolina senior has opened up about how she survived 9 days trapped in a bathtub. As reported by the New York Post, Joan Rivet was getting ready for bed at her Clyde home on June 1 when tragedy struck.
She tripped in the bathroom, falling into the bathtub and sending her shower curtain and rod on top of her. She explained in an interview that her "first thought was, 'oh, my goodness, what did I do?'".
Rivet lived alone since being widowed in 2023. Because of the fall, her back had been badly hurt, leaving her unable to pick herself up. So she ended up being trapped, laying there.
And because she lived alone, that meant her cries for help weren't heard. She spent hours trying to get anyone's attention to help her, but all she got was her cat meowing outside the door.
Her injuries left her in a fugue state, with her dipping in and out of consciousness as time went on. "I'd see it get dark and lighter, dark and lighter. I lost track, to be honest, of the days," she recalled.
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She Was Determined to Survive Being Trapped
But, despite everything, she said she had a determination and a will to survive. "There were times I was crying out and I said, 'Lord, help, help, help, help release the pain!'"
She said that while she never knew if help was going to come, but she was "determined to survive".
In order to survive, she said she had to fight through her injuries to move the faucet of the bathtub. She had to drink the water whilst trapped and immobile, she recalled.
She ended up being saved by her brother. Bill Lesko, by that point, hadn't heard from his sister for days. The only issue was he was living 5 hours away, in Georgia.
He said in an interview, "I called a couple of days with no answer.... After several days I realized she's not answering, something's not right."
He ended up contacting the Haywood County Sheriff's Office, who conducted a wellness check. They found Rivet semi-conscious before rushing her to hospital. Her cat, Phoebe, also survived, despite being left for days without food or water.
And now, she's planning on moving to Georgia to live with her brother. We're glad that she (and her cat) survived. What a terrifying ordeal!
