Lyft driver helps save elderly woman trapped in bathtub

Clara Simmons is a Lyft driver and has been on the job for just two months. A recent drive picking up a passenger forever changed her life.

Some say it transformed her into a hero and a lifesaver.

"I have not had one bad passenger experience and that by far was the most fulfilling, joyful experience that I have had," said Simmons.

Last weekend, Simmons got a call to pick up 86-year-old Millicent Hill along Catherine Street in Philadelphia's Cobbs Creek neighborhood. When Hill didn't answer after repeated knocks to the door, and Simmons heard the sounds of a dog barking, she knew something wasn't quite right. She called 911. It turns out Hill was trapped in her bathtub.

"I felt like I could see what was going on inside the house and at this point, I am like I had a mental picture of the dog like standing over her and she is like maybe laid out," Simmons said.

Hill was home alone at the time and says she slipped and fell. She says she was stuck in the tub for at least five hours. To her, it felt like an eternity and her life flashed before her eyes. She admits, she thought she was going to die.

"I kept praying. I just kept praying that somebody would come and get me out of there," said Hill.

Thankfully, Simmons didn't just drive off but trusted her gut and called for help. It's an act of kindness that saved a life and turned strangers into friends.

"I would call her a hero, a lifesaver too because I could still be in that tub," Hill said.

"I don't have my mom anymore and this is the day before Mother's Day and she doesn't have any children so I was like if nothing else, you had a daughter over the weekend," Simmons said.

Eventually firefighters came and rescued Hill. She now has a seat in her tub and says she will make sure someone is with her, or aware that she is going for a bath in the future. To those first responders and to Simmons, Hill says she's forever grateful.

"I know they saved my life because I would have been in there," Hill said.

Hill was not seriously injured and only had a minor injury to her shoulder. She urges anyone with elderly neighbors to go check on them from time to time.