This is not your average survivor story. A 90-year-old woman from Walnut Creek, Calif. credits a rubber duck for saving her life after she got stuck in her bathtub for three long days.



Shirley Madsen became too weak to get out of the tub after taking a bath on the evening of May 27, she told the Contra Costa Times.



Madsen told the paper that her biggest fear was that she would become dehydrated because she wasn't able to get enough water in her hands to drink.



"I have this collection of rubber duckies. There is a fireman, a policeman and others," Madsen told the paper. "I jokingly tell my friends that I am going home to take a bath with the boys."



On the second day of being stuck, she realized the sailor duck had a hole in it. That did the trick because she could suck up the water and then drink from the hole.



"I could hear people walking by and the phone ringing from time to time," Madsen said. "I was calling for help, but I guess they just couldn't hear me.



She also kept adding hot water to the tub to stay warm.



Her children did not immediately become concerned because they thought she was still on a gambling trip for seniors. She had just returned from that trip when she decided to take a bath.



Finally one of Madsen's daughters did become worried and sent her sister over to check.



As soon as that woman entered the door she could hear her mother's cry for help.



Madsen is now fully recovered from the ordeal after spending three days in the hospital, and says she just wants to move on.