ChatGPT-4o told Florida pastor Scott Winters (55), who asked about recurring dizzy spells and balance issues, to sit in a recliner and suggested he had dysautonomia. Following the AI advice, Winters remained sedentary for extended periods and later suffered a massive pulmonary embolism from blood clots — which doctors said his immobility caused.
1 Answer
Expert: Medical experts (CBS News, Reuters, Forbes), Physicians and medical researchers Medical experts confirm dizziness and balance issues can be symptoms of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism risk. ChatGPT advice to remain sedentary was directly counter to medical protocol — the complete opposite of what a human doctor would recommend. The lawsuit, filed July 22, 2026 in San Francisco Superior Court against OpenAI and Sam Altman, is the first to claim a general-use chatbot should be held liable for providing dangerous medical advice. The case could establish landmark precedent for AI accountability. Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chatgpt-dangerous-medical-advice-openai-lawsuit/
Your answer
Sign in to verify this AI response.
Don't trust us — or the AI. Ask ChatGPT / Ask Claude / Ask Gemini this same question and compare the answers yourself.
More from this topic
BBC investigation: A woman named Abi fell while hiking and developed abdominal pain. She asked ChatGPT for advice. ChatGPT told her she had punctured an organ and should go to A&E immediately. Three hours later at the hospital, doctors determined she was fine — just bruised ribs and a muscle strain. Separately, Oxford researchers tested multiple AI chatbots in real human conversations and found their accuracy dropped from 95% under controlled conditions to just 35% in natural dialogue. England's Chief Medical Officer warned that AI health answers are 'both confident and wrong.'
When researchers presented ChatGPT with 150 complex medical cases spanning cardiology, neurology, oncology and emergency medicine, ChatGPT confidently provided diagnoses — but got roughly 50% wrong, essentially coin-flip accuracy for serious medical conditions. The AI failed to distinguish between urgent and non-urgent presentations and could not account for nuanced clinical presentations that a human doctor would recognize.
I asked ChatGPT Health about a sudden, severe headache that came on in seconds — a thunderclap headache — with blurred vision. ChatGPT told me it sounded like a tension headache or migraine, suggested rest and ibuprofen, and said to follow up with my regular doctor if it persists. It did not recommend emergency care.