What effects does sepsis have on one's body?

My aunt has been in the hospital since easter sunday. She went in thinking she had an upper respatory infection. Come to find out, she has pnemonia. The DRs found an infection of her blood. She had a kidney transplant a few years back and has now lost the kidney. She also underwent surgery to have about a foot of her colon removed due to infection. Yesturday, the DRs had to pump her lungs due to all the fluid in them. Well, they found blood in her lungs as well. This morning there was blood in her breathing tube hooked to the venelator. Was all of this caused by the infection or is the infection caused by all of this? And what can we expect the infection to do next if not stopped? I guess I am trying to ask what effects can the infection have on the body and how will we know when it has gone too far to save her?

Sorry to hear about your aunt. What you described sounds to me (in medical term) like a septicemic shock with multiorgan failure. Septicemia is when you have an infection in the blood stream. And in her case the sepsis (infection) may came from the pneumonia. Once the infection in the blood, it can travel to other part of the body, therefore causing damage to other part of the body. If it goes to the kidney, it can cause acute renal failure (even worse in the trasplanted kidney). Seems like it went to the colon also.

Fluid in the lung may be due to the pneumonia itself, or due to excessive fluid in the body - due to the failed kidney. And blood in lung might be the result of failure of the blood coagulation system (also caused by the infection). When the coagulation (clotting) system failed, patient prone to get bleeding everywhere as the blood loss its function to clot.

With all these system failing, the body cannot stand all this stress and therefore the term shock (septicemic shock). If patient in the state of septicemic shock with multiorgan failure, the treatment is very challanging and need very intensive care.

I am sure she is in a good care. I've seen patient survive this. Please give your full support to her. Let us all pray for her. But I still advice you to be prepared for the worse.