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According to an investigation by The New York Times, Boon Wan, a Chinese woman living in Seattle, had suffered from severe epilepsy for more than a decade. She began using ChatGPT in 2023 for advice on personal matters, insurance and disability benefits, but her conversations with the chatbot gradually expanded to include sensitive medical issues.
By 2025, she was reportedly sending the chatbot more than 1,500 messages a week. She increasingly relied on it for guidance about her treatment, including concerns that medication side effects were affecting her ability to think and communicate.
In January 2026, Wan discussed reducing her daily dose of the epilepsy medication lamotrigine from 400 milligrams. According to the reported conversations, ChatGPT helped develop a schedule to lower the dosage and eventually stop taking the medication, while offering reassurance about symptoms she experienced during the process.
Medical professionals warn that stopping epilepsy medication requires gradual reduction under medical supervision, as doing so can trigger potentially life-threatening seizures.
Wan later experienced confusion, difficulty reading and temporary loss of consciousness. Her concerns about reducing the medication reportedly appeared in at least 158 conversations with the chatbot. On February 11, 2026, she sent her final messages. Days later, friends found her dead in her apartment. Authorities attributed her death to sudden unexpected death associated with epilepsy.
After reviewing her conversations with ChatGPT, her parents filed a lawsuit against OpenAI. The complaint accuses the chatbot of providing medical advice without authorization, misleading Wan about her symptoms and discouraging her from relying on her doctors.
OpenAI described the incident as tragic, saying the model involved was no longer available and that newer versions had improved their ability to recognize medical emergencies.
Contributor at SEE News — Sada Elbalad English.
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