unless its in a bucket with no drain hole its not really submerged the medium is just taking a while to let the water out.. if its in the ground, don't worry about it... i intentionally put trenches around mine to catch the rain... less walking with water haha.
as far as the answer to how long a plant can live, no idea, and i dono if anyone in here has ever 'drowned' a plant... maybe it could be an experiment with a male some time