I went for a cigarette break — and ended up with a broken neck

A UK woman went outside for what she thought was a relaxing cigarette break — but it ended up changing her life forever.

In 2019, Cary Edby was nearly paralyzed after she lost her footing and fell 12 feet a few days before Christmas. She landed face first in a gap near the basement apartment below her.

“I went outside for a cigarette and lost my balance and summersaulted over the wall,” Edby, 25, told Southwest News Service. “When I fell, I couldn’t talk or move.

“I thought, ‘This is it — I’m paralyzed.’ I wanted to call for help, but I couldn’t open my mouth.”

After she was able to call for help, two strangers miraculously heard her soft cries, and they found her mom, Diane Dee, 59, as she was still in the house.

“I heard a drip noise and thought it was raining but apparently my head was bleeding,” Edby said.

Her mom called an ambulance and the fire department, who spent three hours getting Edby out of the place she fell.

She was taken to William Harvey Hospital outside London, where doctors found out through a CT scan that she had fractured her neck in three different places.

Edby was moved to King’s College Hospital in London, where she had a spinal surgery on Christmas Eve, and has since made a “miracle recovery.”

However, she credits a separate surgery for saving her life in this near-fatal accident.

“When I was 15, I had severe scoliosis and had spinal fusion surgery where they put lots of metal joints in me,” Edby told SWNS.

“That surgery saved me as it stopped me from breaking more of my spine.”

After 14 days in the hospital, Edby was sent home in a neck brace, which she then had to wear for three months.

But doctors are “amazed” and shocked that she didn’t become paralyzed from the accident — and that she is still able to walk.

“Everyone feels it’s a complete miracle I’m OK,” Edby said.

Edby has gained back her mobility, but she is left with a 50% reduction in her neck. This means that she struggles to rotate her head and has to turn her entire body to the right or left in order to look in a certain direction.

While she still struggles with chronic pain, nerve damage and balance, she is grateful.

“It’s completely amazing,” Edby said. “Doctors can’t believe I’m not in a wheelchair.”

And, in April 2022, she welcomed her first child, son Freddy, with her partner, Connor Wright, 27.

Edby described her baby boy as “amazing” and “funny,” and said she loves being a mom.

Unfortunately, she lost her mom and her grandmother, Sylvia, 80, while she was pregnant.

“I feel like their souls have gone into Freddy,” Edby said. “He’s got my nan’s smile and I think he looks like my mum.”