The patient had stem cell transplantation two months earlier for acute myeloid leukemia and developed persistent shortness of breath followed by signs of intestinal obstruction, in keeping with pulmonary graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and typhlitis.

Graft versus host disease is a frequent complication of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, also known as bone marrow transplantation.

It is one of the major complications of this treatment and can present either early, (within the first 100 days) or later, (more than 100 days) following post-allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Chronic pulmonary GVHD can present as organizing pneumonia or pulmonary fibrosis.