Pablo Cordova is a very lucky man. When presumed dead, his wife had bought a coffin for his funeral. But then the miracle survivor emerged alive from the rubble that was left in the wake of the massive earthquake that hit Ecuador and killed over 500 people. The 51-year-old was one of the very few people who survived the disaster. His wife had given up all hopes of seeing him again when the five-storey Gato de Portoviejo hotel collapsed after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake rattled Ecuador. She had asked Pablo's boss to buy her husband's coffin. However, as luck would have it, Pablo survived after being trapped for 36 hours in the rubble. He drank his own urine to stay alive and spent his time hoping for the cell service to resume which, when it did, saved his life.

He called his wife and thus began the rescue operations. He was soon pulled out of the wreckage by a team that had flown in from Colombia.

"They were organizing the funeral, but I've been reborn. I will have to give that coffin back because I still have a long way to go before I die," laughed Pablo while recuperating in a hospital.