A 63-year-old mother who had alcohol problems and lived in "squalor" fell down her stairs and died a few days later in hospital, an inquest heard.

Barbara Hammond, a retired personnel manager, from Chiltern Close, Worcester Park, had a long history of alcohol dependency, Westminster’s Coroner’s Court heard on Friday.

On the morning of July 8, 2012, a friend found her conscious lying at the bottom of the stairs and called the London Ambulance Service who found her naked from the waist down, covered in faeces with a "seriously discoloured" arm.

It was thought she had been lying there for up to 12 hours, the inquest heard.

Ms Hammond was taken to St George’s Hospital, in Tooting, where they found a haematoma on her left side, a neck fracture and a "remarkably abnormal liver".

It was felt she would not benefit from surgery due to her low blood pressure and a rare blood clotting condition and as she continued to deteriorate the decision was taken with her family to cease treatment and she passed away at 1am on July 10.

The post mortem examination found the amount of alcohol in her blood suggested she was drunk at the time of the fall.

Ms Hammond’s daughter Julie Goodman raised questions about the care she received in hospital including whether her bleeding had been stopped sooner in her left arm sooner it would have changed her organ failure.

However, it was explained that Ms Hammond was not considered sufficiently stable and an operation would not have been appropriate under those circumstances.

Assistant Coroner Ms Jean Harkin said she was satisfied Ms Hammond received the appropriate treatment when she arrived at hospital even if they had known about her rare blood clotting condition sooner.

She recorded a verdict of accidental death with the primary cause of death being heart failure, compounded by her rare blood clotting condition and the fracture in her neck.

An underlying cause of death was given as scarring of the liver.