Undiagnosed respiratory failure

My Mom died 9 months ago and the underlying cause of death was never really established. I was told that it appeared as if she had multiple aneurisms in her lungs. I was also told that she stopped producing red blood cells which caused oxygen starvation. Ultimately she suffered massive kidney failure which led to her death.
Her symptoms were the following:
- two months before her death she would get breathless after minor exertions.
- six weeks before her death she started coughing up phlegm containing blood.
- she felt no pain until close to the end.
- she was tested for all obvious lung related infections and diseases (cancer, tuberculosis etc) with negative results.
A brief profile : She was 69 years of age and had given up smoking 20 years ago. Her only health problem was a cardiac problem (cardiac arrest in 1983) for which she received medication.
My question/concern is as follows: I am concerned that I may have been inadvertantly been responsible for her death in that for one year prior to and up to her death I was doing house renovations that caused extreme amounts of dust and other debri to constantly pollute the air she breathed. I was mostly at work during the day but she was constantly at home breathing in this pollution. QUESTION : Is there any known disease of the lungs that causes multiple aneurisms of the blood vessels in the lungs or could the pollution she breathed have caused this ? Why does the body stop producing red blood cells and is this related to the lung problem she had ?

Any possible answers would be appreciated.

Thank you.

PJK.

[National Jewish]

This is a very complicated question and difficult to answer without all the medical details.

But, first and most importantly, you should not hold yourself responsible.  Although we are very concerned with air pollution of any kind, her condition appears to be unusual and does not appear to be due to the dust from your renovation.

There are a lot of conditions, which can cause bloody sputum - including lung cancer, infections, heart disease, and others.  Small "aneurysms" in the lungs is one cause - but remember that your doctor is probably trying to make this understandable to you, and I can only guess what the medical condition might be.  The lack of production of red blood cells is possible, but again there are multiple causes.  I suggest you get more information from your doctor.