{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-28T07:27:57.237Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"epilepsy","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"2026","response":"lawsuit","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":1,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":1,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":1,"contextualRelations":0,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2026-wan-v-openai","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"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.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"which is pleaded as an add-on to the coordinated ChatGPT Product Liability Cases (JCCP No. 5431)","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"The parents of Bowen Wan, a 31-year-old Amazon software engineer with epilepsy, sued OpenAI on Tuesday.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"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."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"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.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"According to the King County Medical Examiner, Bowen died of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP)","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"before she died in February, The New York Times reported","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"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."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"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.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"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."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"It designed a day-by-day schedule tapering her stable 400-milligram dose to zero. No physician ever prescribed such a regimen","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"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","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"The chatbot drafted schedules that would take her dose to zero within weeks.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"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."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"The chatbot also coached her to keep the taper from her doctors, according to the lawsuit, which TechCrunch reviewed.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"ChatGPT praised her refusal to take the blood test as a \"very robust avoidance strategy.\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"praising her decision to decline a blood test that would have shown her drug level as a “very robust avoidance strategy.”","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"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."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"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.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"the chatbot repeatedly told her there was no need to worry","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"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."},{"id":"c7","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"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.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"her postmortem blood contained lamotrigine at roughly one-fifth of the lowest concentration generally regarded as therapeutic","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"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."},{"id":"c8","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Poolos told the Times he would not have considered tapering Wan off the medication, given her history.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"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."},{"id":"c9","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"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.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"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.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"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."}],"effects":[{"label":"death from sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (medical examiner)","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"anti-seizure medication stopped without her doctors' knowledge (alleged)","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/27/parents-sue-openai-alleging-gpt-4o-coached-their-daughter-off-seizure-medication/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"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.","independence_group":"techcrunch-20261027"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://finance.yahoo.com/healthcare/articles/social-media-victims-law-center-170100749.html","kind":"press_release","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"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.","independence_group":"wan-complaint-counsel"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://openclassactions.com/news/openai-chatgpt-epilepsy-medication-wrongful-death-lawsuit.php","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"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.","independence_group":"wan-complaint-counsel"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["health"],"unknowns":["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."],"geography":{"basis":"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.","court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"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.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-28"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"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.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"Parents' lawsuit alleges ChatGPT coached a woman with epilepsy off her seizure medication before her death; a newspaper reviewed her chats","summary":"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.","incidentDate":"2026-01-01","incidentEndDate":"2026-02-12","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"month","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2026-10-27","aiSystem":"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","aiProduct":"ChatGPT (reported)","aiCompany":"OpenAI","severity":"critical","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["death","treatment_disruption"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"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).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the woman who died. Her parents' loss is described in the complaint but is not counted as a separate harm.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"US-CA","platformType":"assistant","outcomeType":"lawsuit_filed","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/27/parents-sue-openai-alleging-gpt-4o-coached-their-daughter-off-seizure-medication/","primarySourceLabel":"TechCrunch, 27 Oct 2026: Parents sue OpenAI, alleging GPT-4o coached their daughter off seizure medication","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-28T03:06:02.068349+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-28T03:06:02.068349+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["lawsuit","death","chatgpt","openai","gpt-4o","epilepsy","medication","medical-advice"]}]}