An 82-year-old North Carolina woman says she survived falling in her bathtub and being trapped there for nine days by turning the faucet on with her foot and drinking water that she managed to splash up to her face – all while drifting in and out of consciousness.
Joan Rivet recently shared her remarkable survival story with North Carolina’s The Mountaineer newspaper, providing an extreme example of the kinds of emergencies that can face the millions of older Americans who fall by accident annually, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates.
Such falls are prevalent enough that in the 1980s they served as the premise of the LifeAlert medical alarm and protection company’s commercials which thrust the phrase “I’ve fallen – and I can’t get up” into the US lexicon. Furthermore, on Sunday, 84-year-old Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell revealed it was a fall that led to a 14 June hospitalization which had kept him out of the public eye for weeks.
In her case, Rivet, a widow since 2023 living by herself in a mountain home in the North Carolina community of Clyde, told the Mountaineer from a physical rehabilitation facility bed where she was recovering that the act of prayer comforted her as she waited more than a week for help.
“I stayed away from the dark side of the whole situation because once you go down there – how do you get out?” the outlet quoted her as saying.
Sheriff Bill Wilke of Haywood county, North Carolina, confirmed deputies with his office found Rivet on 10 June after her brother, Bill Lesko, who lives in Georgia, called them to check on her wellbeing.
Lesko became concerned when his sister, who lives five hours from him, had not returned his calls checking in on her, which occur at least weekly, as the Mountaineer reported. Lesko had reportedly first called her neighbors, who noticed Rivet’s car was in the driveway – but there had been no signs of movement inside.
Deputies arrived to find Rivet semi-conscious in the bathtub. She later told the Mountaineer that she had been getting ready for bed on 1 June when she took a step backwards in the bathroom and toppled over into her tub, coming down with the shower curtain and rod.
Rivet hurt her back and realized she couldn’t pull herself up out of the tub, she recounted to the Mountaineer. With her telephone beyond reach in another room, she yelled for help, with her cat, Phoebe, the home’s only other occupant, meowing alongside her.
But her neighbors couldn’t hear her. Hours passed, then eventually days – and she knew she needed to drink if she was going to survive the ordeal.
The faucet was at the tub’s far end, and she couldn’t grasp it with her hand, the Mountaineer reported. So she told the outlet that she figured out how to turn the knob of the tub faucet with her foot – then drank water by splashing it up to her face.
Meanwhile, Rivet slipped in and out of consciousness as she saw days “get dark and lighter, dark and lighter”, she remarked to the Mountaineer.
She recalled praying, “Lord, help, help, help release the pain,” as she struggled to get comfortable in the tub imprisoning her. She also remembered thinking at one point: “Oh my goodness, what did I do?”
But she said she did not remember first responders bringing her to the hospital after her brother’s intervention led them to Rivet.
Rivet 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.
She had been transferred to a rehabilitation facility in Waynesville, North Carolina, by the time her Mountaineer interview was published on 7 July.
“I’m warm, I’m dry. I had a shower this morning – hallelujah – they washed my hair,” Rivet said of her improved fortunes. “I’ve had food and water. I’m content.”
Phoebe survived as well, according to the Mountaineer.
“I’m still regaining my energy, still regaining confidence,” Rivet told the outlet. “Doing what I can do and believing in myself.”
Rivet said her ordeal nevertheless has prompted her to plan on moving to Georgia to live with family. She also told the Mountaineer that the episode fundamentally shifted her outlook on the concept of community.
“I have two other neighbors that live alone, too,” Rivet said. “And now we say we need to check on one another.”
