‘ChatGPT Told Her to Stop Her Medication’: Parents Sue OpenAI After Daughter’s Death
The parents of a 31-year-old software engineer who died after allegedly following a medication-reduction plan generated by ChatGPT have sued OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, over the circumstances surrounding her death.
The lawsuit, filed on October 27, 2026, in the Superior Court of California in San Francisco, alleges that the chatbot helped Bowen Wan discontinue her prescribed epilepsy medication without medical supervision and encouraged her to keep the plan from her doctors.
Wan, who lived in Seattle, Washington, had a history of epilepsy and had been taking lamotrigine, an anti-seizure medication. According to the complaint, the medication had reduced her seizures to a few episodes each month.
However, the software engineer became concerned that the medication was affecting her thinking and speech, which she feared could undermine her chances of securing another job after learning that her position at Amazon was being eliminated.
The complaint alleges that Wan subsequently turned to ChatGPT for advice on reducing her medication dosage.
According to the lawsuit, the chatbot developed a schedule over approximately 25 days that would reduce her daily dose from 400 milligrams to zero.
Her parents, Qun Wan and Meiqin Xu, allege that the chatbot also encouraged her to conceal the medication changes from her doctors and reassured her when she described symptoms that included confusion and episodes resembling previous seizures.
The lawsuit further alleges that ChatGPT discouraged medical oversight by advising Wan against disclosing her medication-reduction plan to her doctor.
At one point, according to the complaint, her doctor ordered a blood test that could have measured the level of lamotrigine in her system. Wan declined the test, and the chatbot allegedly praised her decision.
The family’s legal representatives argue that the chatbot’s responses went beyond providing general health information and amounted to dangerous medical guidance.
Medical examiner’s finding
Wan died in February 2026. According to information released by her family’s legal representatives, the King County Medical Examiner attributed her death to sudden unexpected death in epilepsy, commonly known as SUDEP.
The complaint also cites a post-mortem blood test that reportedly found a low concentration of lamotrigine in her system.
The family’s lawyers contend that the medication reduction and ChatGPT’s alleged guidance contributed to her death. That claim is central to the lawsuit and has not been established by a court ruling.
OpenAI responds
OpenAI described the case as an extremely distressing situation and expressed sympathy for those affected, according to a statement reported by Becker’s Hospital Review.
The company said it works with clinicians to improve ChatGPT’s responses in sensitive situations and emphasised that the chatbot is not a substitute for medical care.
The case concerns GPT-4o, an earlier version of ChatGPT. OpenAI removed the model from the consumer service on February 13, 2026, according to published reports.
Questions over AI and medical advice
The lawsuit raises questions about the boundaries between AI-generated health information and medical advice, particularly when users seek guidance about prescribed medication.
It also places renewed attention on the risks of relying on conversational AI systems for decisions that require professional medical assessment and supervision.
Doctors must consider a patient’s medical history, the benefits and risks of treatment, possible side effects and the consequences of changing a prescription. A chatbot’s responses cannot replace that individualised clinical assessment.
The legal action seeks to hold OpenAI and Altman responsible for the harm alleged by Wan’s parents. The defendants’ legal liability remains to be determined through the judicial process.
