A retired teacher suffered an "unusual" death after falling ill days after an accidental injury while doing her washing.

Muriel Christine Sparks, who previously taught at Framingham Earl High School, died earlier this month in hospital after attending A&E for a painful arm injury. She was 79.

An inquest into her death heard that Mrs Sparks had banged her arm on the banister of her home in Norwich while carrying a basket of washing downstairs.

Initially, the impact caused her some discomfort but no major cause for concern.

But in the following days it became more and more painful, swollen and had turned purple.

She first sought help from her GP for the injury before being advised to attend A&E at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

Shortly after arriving though, she became increasingly breathless and fell seriously ill.

Her son, Chris Sparks, said in a statement that his mother was a "fit and healthy woman who lived fully independently at home with her husband".

He said he had taken her to A&E, at which point she was walking on her own, but as she was admitted she was short of breath.

While she was in hospital she suffered two cardiac arrests, from which she was resuscitated, before dying peacefully on Thursday, December 14.

Her medical cause of death was given as multiple organ failure, cellulitis and pneumonia due to a traumatic arm injury.

Giving a conclusion of accidental death, area coroner Yvonne Blake described the case as "unusual".

She said: "This is a very sad case which appears to have stemmed from what seemed at the time to be a very minor injury.

"She said it was sore but initially gave no cause for concern, but gradually became more painful.

"It appears all of this has followed on from an accidental injury to her arm which resulted in fatal consequences."