A promising political journalist, 26, who was placed into a medically-induced coma after she was found unconscious and barely breathing at her apartment in Southern California, has died.

On Thursday morning, Bre Payton, a frequent TV commentator and staff writer for right-wing news website The Federalist, was admitted into the ICU at a hospital in San Diego, Daily Mail reports.

According to a CaringBridge fundraising page set up for her, doctors determined after hours of tests that she was suffering from the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu, as well as possible meningitis.

While the news of her hospitalization broke on Friday morning, The Federalist publisher Ben Domenech confirmed the news of her death by noon. "Bre has passed. We are devastated. Last we saw her, she was her funny, smart, vivacious self. Now lost to us so suddenly," Domenech wrote.

Morgan Murtaugh, a close friend of Payton, first revealed the journalist's hospitalization on Twitter on Friday morning after she found her unconscious and barely breathing on Thursday at around 8.30 am.

"24 hours ago I found my friend unconscious and called 911," Murtaugh wrote. "She’s been in a coma since and really needs a miracle right now. Please, if you’re religious at all, send prayers this way. We really need them."

The crowdfunding page set up for Payton read: "The doctors are concerned that her neurological signs are not great at this point and have informed us the next 24-48 hours are going to be critical for her. At this time we're just asking that you lift Bre up in prayer and ask for a healing miracle and a full recovery."

By midday Friday, the young journalist had succumbed to the disease.