An 82-year-old widow spent nine days stuck in her tub with only her cat’s meows for company at first, and used her foot to stay alive

Joan Rivet, 82, says a fall in her North Carolina bathroom left her stuck in her own bathtub for nine full days, and she credits her foot for keeping her alive, as reported by the New York Post. She was getting ready for bed at her home in Clyde on June 1 when her foot slipped in the bathroom, sending her backward into the tub and pulling the curtain rod down with her, she told The Mountaineer.

“My first thought was, ‘oh my goodness, what did I do?'” Rivet, a widow since 2023 who lives alone, told the outlet while recovering at the Skyland Terrace Rehabilitation Center. She said severe back pain from the fall made it impossible to climb out, and she spent hours calling for help with no response, hearing only her cat Phoebe meowing outside the bathroom door.

What started as hours quickly stretched into days, and she began losing awareness of time altogether. “I’d see it get dark and lighter, dark and lighter. I lost track, to be honest, of the days,” she said. “There were times I was crying out and I said, ‘Lord, help, help, help release the pain.'” Living alone with no kids of her own to check in, Rivet said she had no idea if anyone would find her in time, but she refused to give up.

Turning the faucet with her foot kept her alive

Even in agony, she managed to turn on the bathtub faucet with her foot and relied on the water hitting her face to keep herself alive through the ordeal. Prolonged periods of isolation followed by rescue have made headlines before, including a Minnesota woman who spent three days trapped in a flooded mud pit before two men on a side-by-side happened to find her.

It took several days before her brother, Bill Lesko, who lives five hours away in Georgia, grew concerned after repeated unanswered calls. “I called a couple of days with no answer,” he said. “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 reached out to her neighbors, who confirmed her car was in the driveway but saw no signs of movement inside. Lesko then contacted the Haywood County Sheriff’s Office to request a wellness check. By the time officers made it to her home on June 10, they discovered Rivet barely conscious in the tub and got her to the hospital right away. She has no memory of the actual rescue, but hospital staff informed her that she was suffering from severe malnutrition, dehydration, and bed sores after being stuck in one position for so long.

She has since regained strength through IV treatment and liquid nutrition and was transferred to a rehabilitation center in nearby Waynesville. Phoebe, left without food or water the entire time, also survived. Rivet now plans to 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,” she said.

“I think I stayed away from the dark side of the whole situation because once you go down there, how do you get out?”