A nurse caring for a patient with crushing injuries from an automobile accident notes that the patient is bleeding profusely from the nose, mouth, and rectum, as well as from the injuries. Which diagnosis should the nurse suspect as the cause of this patient's bleeding?

A. Leukemia: While leukemia can cause bleeding due to low platelets, the acute onset following trauma suggests a more rapid consumption of clotting factors. B. Hemophilia: This is a genetic clotting factor deficiency; while it causes bleeding, it is not typically "triggered" by trauma in this systemic, multi-orifice fashion in a patient without a known history. C. Thrombocytopenia: This is a symptom (low platelets) rather than the complex systemic process occurring in a trauma patient with multi-site hemorrhage. D. Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC): Massive trauma/crushing injuries can trigger DIC. The body uses up all its clotting factors in response to the injury, leading to a paradoxical state where the patient clots in small vessels but bleeds uncontrollably from all other sites.