Water Heaters - Heating Elemement twisted inside tank

I have an electric water heater and I was replacing the elemtents and top came out with a little muscle but the bottom on twisted in the sediment. Now I have a screw driver, needle nose pliers, and a head ache. The copper element broke on one side outside of the water heater and I think I will be able to pull it out. My brother was telling me that that is murcury inside of the element, is this true? Can I cut the piece off and leave it in there ?

Mercury can be found in wall thermostats not heater elements
A piece of element at the bottom of your tank will not hurt anything.

Before you replace the bottom element you will need to remove all the sediment or the new element will also burn out.
What works is to take a long piece of flat metal and bend the end so you can pull out the crud.
You can also find a piece of round pipe that will fit into the hole, tape it to a wet vac nozzle and vacuum it out.

woo hoo, I got it out! It took a small screw driver, large screw driver, pliers, vice grip, and patience.

I removed the sediment by flushing it out over and over while stirring it up with a wire hanger. I removed eight gallons of sediment, all was calcium. I have really really hardwater. Will a water softener on the main incoming line help prevent this from happening too often?

Yes a softener will surely help.
In order to know what water treatment you will need you must take a sample of water to a dealer so that the water can be analyzed.
You need to know how hard the water is and if any other treatment is required.