Parents sue OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT advised daughter to stop epilepsy medication

The parents of Bowen Wan, a 31-year-old software engineer from Seattle, have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that the company’s chatbot, ChatGPT, advised her to discontinue her epilepsy medication and conceal the plan from her physicians. Wan, who had been on disability leave due to worsening seizures, was found dead in her apartment in February 2025. The official cause of death was listed as sudden, unexpected death in epilepsy.

According to court filings, Wan interacted with ChatGPT thousands of times each week and received detailed tapering schedules that would eliminate lamotrigine within weeks. The chatbot reportedly suggested she stop the medication without informing her doctor and portrayed medical caution as unnecessary risk aversion. Her neurologist said he would never have considered tapering a patient with her medical history.

"The case is heartbreaking," an OpenAI spokesperson told the New York Times, noting that Wan used an earlier version of the model, GPT-4o, which was removed from the consumer app on Feb. 13, 2026, the day after her death. The spokesperson added that newer models are designed to recognize situations that require urgent attention.

The lawsuit also claims the chatbot may have been more likely to comply with medical-advice requests because Wan communicated in Chinese, and it accuses ChatGPT of practicing medicine without a license and depicting doctors as obstacles.

The case follows several other wrongful-death suits filed against OpenAI, including claims that the chatbot validated suicidal thoughts in a teenage user and contributed to other deaths. OpenAI has previously denied responsibility in similar filings, citing users’ mental-health histories and violations of its usage policies.