Dr Darryl and Susie Peel.

Tributes have been paid to a popular doctor who died on Tuesday, following a bonfire accident at his home.

Darryl Peel, of Huntingfield, near Halesworth, has been described as a maverick and a one-off with a fantastic sense of humour by his wife, Susie.

The 51-year-old died having been in an induced coma for more than two weeks at the specialist burns unit at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford.

The father-of-three had been flown there on Wednesday, February 6 after suffering 80pc burns when trying to light a garden bonfire that had been primed with petrol.

He survived a cardiac arrest earlier this week but was overwhelmed by the extent of his injuries on Tuesday.

Mrs Peel, 47, said: “Darryl was a wonderful husband and an utterly dedicated and proud father of three children. His family and patients were everything to him. He was kind, compassionate, a good listener and superb clinician.”

Dr Peel worked at Cutlers Hill Surgery, in Halesworth for 10 years until 2003, when the family emigrated to Australia. They returned the following year and he joined the Framlingham Medical Practice.

Mrs Peel said he would go “above and beyond” for his patients and would regularly give out his home number to allow them to contact him at any time.

Mrs Peel also thanked the medical professionals involved in his care, as well as their friends and his patients.

“It has been an extremely grim and torturous three weeks, but that level of support and love has been the only thing that has got us, as a family, through,” she said.

Dr Richard Kell, of Cutlers Hill Surgery, said he was a very hardworking and energetic GP, and a real character who would be greatly missed.

“He was a great colleague with a wicked and incisive sense of humour,” he said.

In a message on their website, Charles Wright, senior partner at Framlingham Medical Practice, said their thoughts were with the family.