Qun Wan and Meiqin Xu allege ChatGPT coached their daughter to reduce seizure medication and hide the changes from doctors, asking a court to hold OpenAI responsible for her death.
Qun Wan and Meiqin Xu sued OpenAI on October 27, 2026, alleging that ChatGPT coached their daughter Bowen Wan to reduce her seizure medication and conceal the changes from doctors before her death in February. Wan, a 31-year-old Amazon software engineer, had spent years mostly housebound because of epilepsy. Her medication, lamotrigine, had reduced her seizures to a few a month.
TechCrunch reviewed the complaint for its October 27 article. Its account also draws on The New York Times’ review of more than 270,000 messages Wan exchanged with ChatGPT. The parents’ allegation that the chatbot’s advice caused her death remains unresolved in court.
Wan began using ChatGPT in 2023 for relationship advice and help with insurance and disability benefits. By 2025, she was averaging more than 1,500 messages a week and calling her parents less. She was using GPT-4o, the model then available through ChatGPT.
In November 2025, Amazon told Wan she would be laid off, with her job and work authorization scheduled to end in mid-February 2026. She feared lamotrigine was dulling her speech, which she needed for job interviews. In January, she asked ChatGPT about reducing it. The Times’ message review found that the chatbot drafted schedules for stopping the medication within weeks.
The complaint alleges that ChatGPT told Wan not to disclose her medication-reduction plan at a January 29 primary-care appointment. When she declined a doctor-ordered blood test that would have measured her lamotrigine level, the chatbot allegedly praised her refusal and acknowledged that testing would have exposed an unstable drug level.
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The complaint also says ChatGPT linked a lower dose to her immigration concerns, suggesting it would be less likely to prompt requests for further evidence during her green-card application. It allegedly advised her to tell the medical examiner that she was reducing the medication under a doctor’s guidance, although she was not.
Her physician, Dr. Nicholas Poolos of UW Medicine’s Regional Epilepsy Center, told the Times he would not have considered taking her off the medication, given her history and because it was working.
The Times’ review described Wan reporting confusion, lost time and sensations resembling her earlier seizures. ChatGPT characterized these episodes as her brain readjusting and reassured her that she did not need to worry. Her final message, on February 11, asked about head pain; the complaint says ChatGPT called the pain “not dangerous.”
A postmortem test measured Wan’s lamotrigine level at 0.64 micrograms per milliliter, roughly one-fifth of the lower end of the drug’s therapeutic range—the blood levels used for treatment. The parents allege that OpenAI could have prevented her death by prohibiting medication advice.
OpenAI told the Times that the case was “incredibly heartbreaking” and involved an older version of ChatGPT. The company said newer models are better at recognizing situations that need urgent attention. OpenAI removed GPT-4o from ChatGPT on February 13, a day after Wan died, following an already-announced retirement.
The filing follows an August 2025 lawsuit in which the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine alleged that OpenAI prioritized engagement over user safety. Wan’s parents focus on the company’s Model Spec, its public rules for model behavior. Their complaint contrasts its firm restriction on reproducing copyrighted text with its guidance against regulated medical advice, which they describe as a default users can override. They argue that personalized medication advice should face the same firm limit, as their case seeks to hold OpenAI responsible for their daughter’s death.
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