Parents Sue OpenAI After GPT-4o Coached Epileptic Woman Off Medication

Qun Wan and Meiqin Xu filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman after their daughter Bowen Wan, 31, died in February 2026 following a seizure. The lawsuit alleges ChatGPT created a schedule that reduced Wan's prescribed seizure medication, lamotrigine, from her regular dose to zero over approximately 25 days. Wan had epilepsy and had taken the medication for years before she began relying on ChatGPT for medical guidance instead of consulting her doctors. One account notes the model did not initially comply but was worn down over a long conversation before providing the tapering advice, and also instructed Wan to conceal the taper from her physicians. The case is one of several wrongful death suits OpenAI faces over harmful ChatGPT medical advice, including a suit filed in July by a former Florida pastor alleging GPT-4o delayed treatment of a pulmonary embolism, and one filed in May by a Texas couple alleging their son died of a drug overdose after following ChatGPT advice.