A 30-year-old woman suffers massive trauma in an automobile accident and expires 4 days later of respiratory insufficiency. A horizontal section of the patient’s brain at autopsy reveals numerous...

A 30-year-old woman suffers massive trauma in an automobile accident and expires 4 days later of respiratory insufficiency. A horizontal section of the patient’s brain at autopsy reveals numerous petechiae scattered throughout the white matter. Which of the following is the most likely explanation for this pathologic finding?

(A) Fat embolism

(B) Global ischemia

(C) Occlusion of middle cerebral artery

(D) Sepsis

(E) Uremia