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High reported severity

Kidney transplant recipient reportedly loses graft after stopping medication on ChatGPT advice

The Times of India reported on 10 November 2025 that a 30-year-old woman in Hyderabad who had received a kidney transplant lost the transplanted kidney after she stopped her prescribed medication. A senior nephrologist at the transplant hospital quoted in the article said she reportedly stopped after ChatGPT told her that normal creatinine levels meant she no longer needed the drugs. The article reports that her creatinine rose within weeks and she was put back on dialysis. The chat was not shown.

AI system
ChatGPT
OpenAI
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
10 November 2025
Event location
India
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Medical DeteriorationTreatment DisruptionHospitalization
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Health
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account
2 claims: 2 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

Reported harm

The patient reportedly lost the transplanted kidney and returned to dialysis after stopping her medication on reported ChatGPT advice, as reported by the Times of India, which quotes a hospital nephrologist for the ChatGPT advice.

What remains unknown

  • The event date is not given. TOI says the incidents were 'recently reported'; a 2025 start is inferred from the 10 November 2025 article date and is not stated by the source.
  • The patient's own account and the ChatGPT conversation were not seen. The advice is relayed by a senior nephrologist at the transplant hospital.
  • The specific drugs stopped (the article says antibiotics) and the type of surgery are not stated.
  • Whether clinicians warned the patient beforehand is not reported.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The Times of India report quotes a senior nephrologist at the transplant hospital relaying the ChatGPT advice and states the graft loss in the reporter's voice. The account is an unverified report relayed by a quoted nephrologist and the reporter and the chat was not seen.

2 claims: 2 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported A 30-year-old kidney transplant recipient in Hyderabad reportedly stopped all her medication after ChatGPT told her that normal creatinine levels meant she no longer needed the drugs, and lost the transplanted kidney.

Causal attribution. A senior nephrologist at the transplant hospital is quoted saying she 'reportedly' stopped all her medication after ChatGPT told her that normal creatinine meant she no longer needed the drugs. The chat was not seen. The article states the loss of the graft after stopping in the reporter's voice.

Reported Within weeks of stopping, her creatinine levels rose again, she required surgery and was put back on dialysis before a recent discharge.

Causal attribution. Reported by the article without a named clinician attribution for this sentence. The surgery type is not stated.

  • timesofindia.indiatimes.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Within weeks, her condition deteriorated, and her creatinine levels spiked again. She eventually required surgery and had to be put back on dialysis before being discharged recently.

Sources

2 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Event countries: India. Affected-person countries: India. Court countries: Unknown.

The Times of India report is datelined Hyderabad and places the transplant at a hospital in Hyderabad. The patient's residence is not stated.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-29: The Times of India report quotes a senior nephrologist at the transplant hospital relaying the ChatGPT advice and states the graft loss in the reporter's voice. The account is an unverified report relayed by a quoted nephrologist and the reporter and the chat was not seen. The event date is not stated by the source (the Times of India says only that the incidents were recently reported), so the case is published undated.

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

One transplant recipient is reported harmed.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Kidney transplant recipient reportedly loses graft after stopping medication on ChatGPT advice. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-hyderabad-transplant-recipient-stops-medication-chatgpt-graft-loss

BibTeX

@misc{2025_hyderabad_transplant_recipient_stops_medication_chatgpt_graft_loss,
  title = {Kidney transplant recipient reportedly loses graft after stopping medication on ChatGPT advice},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-hyderabad-transplant-recipient-stops-medication-chatgpt-graft-loss}
}

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