How long you can live with a broken cervical spine depends entirely on the extent of the cervical fracture. For minor fractures of the cervical spine that are not significantly displaced and do not cause nerve damage, life expectancy is not affected at all after the fracture heals. For relatively severe cervical spine fractures, which can cause partial damage to the cervical spinal cord and result in incomplete paralysis of the limbs, a portion of the fracture can be recovered through surgical treatment, and ideally even the majority of the fracture can be recovered, in which case there is no significant impact on life expectancy. In the most serious case, a broken cervical vertebra can cause complete damage to the cervical spinal cord, resulting in complete paralysis of the limbs, which can have a very serious impact on life expectancy, which can range from 3 or 5 days to 3 or 5 years.