A family has been left devastated after a British-born mother of five died in an Israeli hospital after falling ill with the flu.

Deganit Glick, 40, who made aliyah in 2010 with her husband Howard, began feeling ill about three weeks ago, Ynet reported. 

When Mrs Glick started coughing up blood, her husband took her to Rambam Hospital in Haifa. 

There she was hospitalized in the intensive care unit for five days, transferred to the inpatient department for another five days and was released on January 21.

However, on the same day she was released from hospital, Mrs Glick began to feel very sick again, and her family doctor sent her back to Rambam.

She was put back in intensive care, and on Thursday Mr Glick visited her with the children just after midday. At 5pm, the hospital called him saying he should return urgently. By the time he arrived, she was dead.

Mr Glick told Ynet, “It started with the flu but continued to pneumonia - and I lost her.

“Deganit was a perfectly healthy woman with no background illnesses. I lost the mother of my five children and I have questions for doctors, but the most important thing for me right now is to keep our wonderful family.”

The couple met in London and lived in Bushey until they emigrated to Israel, where they lived in a settlement of the Misgav area of the Galilee. Mrs Glick was a regular blogger who wrote articles for her own website as well as the Times of Israel. 

Rabbi Natan Slifkin, director of The Biblical Museum of Natural History in Beit Shemesh, wrote: “I am absolutely crushed at the passing of my wonderful, vivacious, loving youngest cousin, Deganit Zarum-Glick, from complications arising due to the flu.”

Rambam Medical Centre said: "Our condolences to the family during our difficult times. Rambam doctors are awaiting results in the coming days from a variety of tests to determine the cause of death. The information will be fully shared with the family."