North Carolina senior trapped in bathtub for 9 days: ‘I spent a lot of time praying. And figuring out how to get out of the tub’

A North Carolina senior tripped in the bathroom, fell into the bathtub, and was trapped inside for 9 agonizing days.

As reported by NY Post, 82-year-old Joan Rivet was preparing to go to sleep at her home in Clyde, North Carolina. She says she accidentally tripped and tumbled backwards. An attempt to grab her shower curtain to break her fall failed, and she ended up inside her bathtub.

Rivet has been a widow since 2023 and lives alone, and she says her first thought was, “Oh my goodness, what did I do?” Her first plan was, naturally, to try to get out of the tub. But “severe back pain” suffered in the fall made that impossible: she simply couldn’t pick herself up.

A similar fate befell a Minnesota woman who ended up trapped in quicksand for three days, with only a chance encounter with some ATV riders saving her.

“I lost track, to be honest, of the days”

Rivet cried out for help for hours, but the only reply was the meowing of her cat Phoebe, just outside the bathroom door. What followed was a truly nightmarish experience as Rivet reportedly spent the next 9 days slipping in and out of consciousness:

“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.’”

But she says she was determined to survive, staying alive by turning the faucet on with her foot and drinking the water to survive. But, with no way to save herself or alert anybody, her life was in danger. As she said:

“I spent a lot of time praying, there’s no doubt about that. And figuring out how to get out of the tub, and thanking the Lord that I was still alive. I think I stayed away from the dark side of the whole situation because once you go down there, how do you get out?”

Then her brother Bill Lesko, who lives five hours away in Georgia, realized he hadn’t heard from his sister in a while:

“I called a couple of days with no answer. I thought, well, maybe the phone isn’t connected, or she’s not answering, or she’s busy, but after several days I realized she’s not answering, something’s not right.”

He contacted authorities, who conducted a wellness check. They discovered Rivet semi-conscious in the bathtub and rushed her to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed her as severely malnourished, dehydrated, and covered in bed sores. But, most importantly, she was alive.

Arguably, it could have been worse, as this unfortunate Australian woman who became trapped in a sewage pit when an outdoor toilet collapsed under her would attest.

Rivet is now recovering and has confirmed plans to move in with her brother. Her cat is also confirmed to be fine.