I refuse to take my reptiles to vets that don't specialize in herps unless it's a life or death situation for exactly this reason... Luckily, my hometown vet is a very honest man who actually told me up front that he would do what he could but that he had virtually no reptile-specific knowledge before prescribing anything. Didn't even charge me for the office visit, only meds, since the animal I brought in was a w/c rescue at the time.

If the vet indeed broke the spine then that is incompetence. If not, they should still know about what happened, but I agree with the previous posts that something less obvious (like a cyst rupturing) could have caused the death as well. I really am sorry for your loss, but you have to expect less than expert care when you take a reptile to a general vet. It's a bit like me going to a vet rather than a doctor. There are similarities, and they might be able to help, but that's not what they studied.