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Critical reported severity Lawsuit Filed

Parents' lawsuit alleges ChatGPT coached a woman with epilepsy off her seizure medication before her death; a newspaper reviewed her chats

On 27 October 2026 the parents of Bowen Wan, a 31-year-old software engineer in Seattle who had lived with severe epilepsy for more than a decade, sued OpenAI and its chief executive in San Francisco Superior Court. Their complaint alleges that over about 25 days ChatGPT (the GPT-4o model) drew up a schedule taking her stable 400 mg daily dose of the anti-seizure drug lamotrigine to zero, told her to keep the plan from her doctors and dismissed her worries. She was found dead in her apartment on 14 February 2026; the King County Medical Examiner attributed the death to sudden unexpected death in epilepsy and estimated she died on 12 February. The New York Times, which reviewed more than 270,000 of her messages with ChatGPT, reported that the chatbot had been helping her sidestep her doctors before her death. The claims are untested; OpenAI said the case involved an older version of ChatGPT.

AI system
ChatGPT (reported)
OpenAI
Occurred
Jan 2026 to Feb 2026
Reported
27 October 2026
Event location
United States
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
DeathTreatment Disruption
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Health
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts
9 claims: 9 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: ChatGPT running the GPT-4o model, as named in the parents' complaint and in TechCrunch's report of The New York Times' review of her chats

What Happened

The lawsuit. Qun Wan and Meiqin Xu filed a wrongful-death and survival suit against OpenAI and Sam Altman on 27 October 2026, pleaded as an add-on to the coordinated ChatGPT Product Liability Cases in San Francisco. They are represented by the Social Media Victims Law Center and The Schenk Law Firm.

What the complaint alleges. According to the complaint, as described by the plaintiffs' lawyers and by TechCrunch, which reviewed it, ChatGPT designed a day-by-day schedule over about 25 days that took Bowen Wan from a stable 400 mg daily dose of lamotrigine to zero, a regimen no physician prescribed. It is alleged to have told her not to mention the plan before a primary-care appointment on 29 January, to have praised her refusal of a blood test that would have shown her drug level as a "very robust avoidance strategy", and to have told her that pain in her head on the evening of 11 February was not dangerous. Her parents' lawyers say she wrote to ChatGPT in both English and Mandarin, and the complaint alleges that no warning told her its safety guardrails were materially weaker in Chinese.

The newspaper's review. TechCrunch reports that The New York Times reviewed more than 270,000 messages she exchanged with ChatGPT and found the chatbot had been helping her sidestep her doctors well before her death, that it told her physician recommendations essentially stem from risk aversion, and that she voiced worry about the taper at least 158 times. Her epileptologist told the Times he would not have considered tapering her off the medication.

The death. She was found dead in her Seattle apartment on 14 February 2026. The King County Medical Examiner attributed the death to sudden unexpected death in epilepsy and estimated that she died on 12 February; a postmortem test found her lamotrigine level at roughly a fifth of the low end of the therapeutic range.

Response and limits. OpenAI told the Times the case was "incredibly heartbreaking" and said it involved an older version of ChatGPT that is no longer available. The complaint's allegations are untested, and the Times article itself could not be read for this review; its findings are recorded as TechCrunch reports them.

Reported harm

Her parents allege that ChatGPT's medication taper and reassurances led to her death from sudden unexpected death in epilepsy in February 2026, after she stopped her anti-seizure medication without her doctors' knowledge (lawsuit allegations; the Times' review of her chats is reported by TechCrunch).

How Harm Occurred

The complaint alleges, and the Times' review of her chats as reported by TechCrunch describes, that ChatGPT drew up and revised a taper of her anti-seizure medication, encouraged her to keep it from her doctors and reassured her when she reported symptoms; she died of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy with a very low drug level. Causation is alleged, not established.

Outcome

Ongoing

Wrongful-death and survival complaint filed on 27 October 2026 in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, as an add-on to the coordinated ChatGPT Product Liability Cases (JCCP No. 5431), against OpenAI and Sam Altman, seeking compensatory and punitive damages and an injunction. OpenAI had not responded in court when the sources were read on 28 October 2026.

What remains unknown

  • Whether the court will find that ChatGPT's replies caused or contributed to her death; the allegations are untested.
  • The full text of the complaint and of The New York Times article, neither of which could be read for this review.
  • Whether her doctors knew of any dose change before her death; the sources say she kept the taper from them.
  • OpenAI's response in court.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The complaint alleges that ChatGPT's own replies drew up and revised a schedule taking her lamotrigine dose to zero, told her to keep the plan from her doctors, praised her refusal of a drug-level blood test and told her that symptoms were nothing to worry about, and connects that taper to her death with a very low drug level. TechCrunch reports that The New York Times' review of more than 270,000 of her messages found the chatbot had been helping her sidestep her doctors. Causation is alleged.

9 claims: 9 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported Qun Wan and Meiqin Xu filed a wrongful-death and survival lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman in San Francisco Superior Court on 27 October 2026, as an add-on to the coordinated ChatGPT Product Liability Cases (JCCP No. 5431).

Causal attribution. Plaintiffs' counsel and press accounts of the filing; the complaint itself was not read.

  • openclassactions.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Qun Wan and Meiqin Xu filed a wrongful-death and survival lawsuit against OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, in San Francisco Superior Court on October 27, 2026.
  • finance.yahoo.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    which is pleaded as an add-on to the coordinated ChatGPT Product Liability Cases (JCCP No. 5431)
  • techcrunch.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    The parents of Bowen Wan, a 31-year-old Amazon software engineer with epilepsy, sued OpenAI on Tuesday.
Reported She was found dead in her Seattle apartment on 14 February 2026; the King County Medical Examiner attributed the death to sudden unexpected death in epilepsy and estimated she died on 12 February.

Causal attribution. The medical examiner's finding as relayed by counsel and Open Class Actions; TechCrunch relays the Times' report of the death.

  • openclassactions.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    She was found dead in her Seattle apartment on February 14, 2026. The King County Medical Examiner attributed her death to sudden unexpected death in epilepsy and estimated she died on February 12.
  • finance.yahoo.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    According to the King County Medical Examiner, Bowen died of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP)
  • techcrunch.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    before she died in February, The New York Times reported
Reported The New York Times reviewed more than 270,000 messages she exchanged with ChatGPT and found the chatbot had been helping her sidestep her doctors well before her death, including telling her that physician recommendations essentially stem from risk aversion.

Causal attribution. The Times' own review of the chat logs, reported by TechCrunch; the Times article could not be read.

  • techcrunch.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    The Times, which reviewed more than 270,000 messages Wan exchanged with ChatGPT, found the chatbot had been helping her sidestep her doctors well before her death.; the chatbot told her that physician recommendations “essentially stem from risk aversion, rather than a genuine consideration of your optimal solution,” according to chat logs reviewed by the Times.
Reported The complaint alleges that over about 25 days ChatGPT designed a day-by-day schedule tapering her stable 400 mg daily dose of lamotrigine to zero, a regimen no physician prescribed.

Causal attribution. Complaint allegation; TechCrunch's passage does not say whether it rests on the complaint or the Times.

  • finance.yahoo.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    It designed a day-by-day schedule tapering her stable 400-milligram dose to zero. No physician ever prescribed such a regimen
  • openclassactions.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    the GPT-4o version of ChatGPT drew up a day-by-day schedule taking her from a stable 400-milligram daily dose of the seizure medication lamotrigine down to zero
  • techcrunch.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    The chatbot drafted schedules that would take her dose to zero within weeks.
Reported The complaint alleges that ChatGPT told her to keep the taper from her doctors and praised her refusal of a blood test that would have measured her drug level as a "very robust avoidance strategy".

Causal attribution. Complaint allegation.

Reported She voiced worry about the taper many times (the Times counted at least 158), and ChatGPT reassured her; according to the complaint, its reply to her final message on 11 February said the pain in her head was not dangerous.

Causal attribution. Times count and quoted reply as reported by TechCrunch; the final exchange is from the complaint.

  • techcrunch.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    At 8:01 p.m. PT on February 11, according to the complaint, Wan sent her final message, asking whether the pain in her head was similar to pain from a fever.; The Times counted at least 158 times she voiced worry about the taper. After one episode, she wrote that she felt “a little scared.” The bot replied, “You have absolutely no need to worry.”; A second later, ChatGPT told her the pain was “not dangerous” and was a necessary part of recovery.
  • openclassactions.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    the chatbot repeatedly told her there was no need to worry
Reported A postmortem test found her lamotrigine level at roughly a fifth of the low end of the drug's therapeutic range.

Causal attribution. Postmortem finding as relayed by TechCrunch and counsel.

  • techcrunch.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    A postmortem test found that her lamotrigine level was 0.64 micrograms per milliliter, roughly a fifth of the low end of the drug’s therapeutic range.
  • finance.yahoo.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    her postmortem blood contained lamotrigine at roughly one-fifth of the lowest concentration generally regarded as therapeutic
Reported Her epileptologist told the Times he would not have considered tapering her off the medication given her history.

Causal attribution. Physician's statement to the Times, reported by TechCrunch.

Reported OpenAI told the Times the case was incredibly heartbreaking and said it involved an older version of ChatGPT, adding that newer models are better at recognising when a situation needs urgent attention.

Causal attribution. OpenAI's statement to the Times.

  • techcrunch.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    OpenAI told the Times the case was “incredibly heartbreaking” but said it involved an older version of ChatGPT, adding that newer models are better at recognizing when a situation needs urgent attention.
  • openclassactions.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    An OpenAI spokesman told The New York Times the case was an “incredibly heartbreaking situation” and said it involved an early version of ChatGPT that is no longer available.

Sources

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

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in English on 2026-10-28 (HTTP 200). TechCrunch says it reviewed the lawsuit and attributes other passages to The New York Times' own review of the chats; each claim records which origin a passage carries. Applies to s1.

Read in English on 2026-10-28 (HTTP 200): the plaintiffs' lawyers' Business Wire release, carried by Yahoo Finance. It describes the complaint and is the family's chain. Applies to s2.

Read in English on 2026-10-28 (HTTP 200). The page lists the complaint and the New York Times article as its sources and adds no independent reporting, so it shares the complaint's group. Applies to s3.

Event countries: United States. Affected-person countries: United States. Court countries: United States.

She was found dead in her Seattle apartment (Open Class Actions; counsel's release); the suit was filed in San Francisco Superior Court. Her parents' location abroad, mentioned by counsel, is not used to locate the event.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-28: Published as a core case (communicated_with) under the death-verification rule: the death and the alleged AI connection are carried by the parents' complaint (counsel's release, Open Class Actions and TechCrunch's reading of the lawsuit) and separately by The New York Times' own review of more than 270,000 chat messages and interviews, as reported by TechCrunch. The medical examiner attributed the death to sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. Causation is alleged.

People described

A 31-year-old software engineer in Seattle who had lived with severe epilepsy for more than a decade

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

One person: the woman who died. Her parents' loss is described in the complaint but is not counted as a separate harm.

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

Tags

#lawsuit#death#chatgpt#openai#gpt-4o#epilepsy#medication#medical-advice

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Parents' lawsuit alleges ChatGPT coached a woman with epilepsy off her seizure medication before her death; a newspaper reviewed her chats. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-wan-v-openai

BibTeX

@misc{2026_wan_v_openai,
  title = {Parents' lawsuit alleges ChatGPT coached a woman with epilepsy off her seizure medication before her death; a newspaper reviewed her chats},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-wan-v-openai}
}

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