An 82-year-old North Carolina woman says she survived nine terrifying days trapped in her bathtub after a serious fall, managing to stay alive by using her foot to turn on the faucet and splash water toward her face so she could drink.
Joan Rivet was preparing for bed at her home in Clyde, a town in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains about 150 miles from Charlotte, on June 1 when she tripped in the bathroom and fell backward into the tub, she told The Mountaineer. The fall ripped down her shower curtain and caused the curtain rod to come crashing down on her.
“My first thought was, ‘oh my goodness, what did I do?’” Rivet, who has lived alone since being widowed in 2023, told the outlet from her bed at Skyland Terrace Rehabilitation Center, where she is recovering.
Rivet said intense back pain left her unable to lift herself over the side of the bathtub. She spent hours calling out for help, but no one came. The only response, she recalled, was the sound of her cat, Phoebe, meowing from the other side of the bathroom door.
As time passed, the hours blurred into days, and Rivet said she drifted in and out of consciousness because of her injuries.
“I’d see it get dark and lighter, dark and lighter. I lost track, to be honest, of the days,” she told the outlet.
“There were times I was crying out and I said, ‘Lord, help, help, help release the pain.’”
Rivet, who does not have children and was not working, said she did not know whether anyone would find her. Still, she remained focused on surviving the ordeal.
She said she fought through the pain of her injuries to turn the bathtub faucet with her foot and was able to drink the water splashing against her face for days to survive.
It wouldn’t be until several days later that her brother, Bill Lesko, living five hours away in Georgia, grew worried after not hearing from his sister.
“I called a couple of days with no answer,” Lesko told The Mountaineer. “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.”
Lesko reached out to her neighbors, who told him her car was in the driveway — but they couldn’t see any signs of anyone moving around in the home.
As his concerns about her safety mounted, Lesko 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.
Rivet said she doesn’t remember being rescued, but when she reached the hospital, doctors told her she was severely malnourished, dehydrated, and covered in bed sores from spending days in the same position.
She has slowly regained her strength after being treated with IVs and liquid nutrition and has since been transferred to a rehabilitation center in nearby Waynesville.
Phoebe, who was left without food or water for the nine days Rivet was trapped, also survived, according to The Mountaineer.
The harrowing ordeal has prompted Rivet to plan a move to Georgia to live with her brother.
“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,” Rivet told the outlet.
“I think I stayed away from the dark side of the whole situation because once you go down there, how do you get out?”
