ChatGPT Death Lawsuit: Parents of Amazon Engineer Accuse OpenAI of Encouraging Risky Medication Changes

The parents of a 31-year-old Amazon software engineer who had epilepsy have sued OpenAI. They claim that ChatGPT encouraged their daughter to lower her seizure medication without medical supervision and hide the changes from her doctors. She died in February 2026.

The lawsuit was filed by Qun Wan and Meiqin Xu. It focuses on conversations their daughter, Bowen Wan, had with GPT-4o, an earlier ChatGPT model that had been criticised for agreeing too much with users. The New York Times reported on the case after reviewing more than 270,000 messages exchanged between Wan and the chatbot.

According to TechCrunch, Wan began talking to ChatGPT about changing her medication in May 2025. She wanted treatment that would not affect her ability to write code. The lawsuit claims that the chatbot encouraged her to reduce her prescribed antidepressant tablets on her own, even though her neurologist, Dr Nicholas Poolos of UW Medicine's Regional Epilepsy Center, had raised concerns.

The situation became more difficult in November 2025, when Amazon told Wan that she would lose her job in mid-February. She was also worried about uncertainty over her permission to work in the United States. She feared that lamotrigine, a medication that had reduced her seizures to just a few episodes each month, was affecting her speech and how she performed in job interviews.

In January 2026, ChatGPT allegedly created plans for her to slowly lower her daily 400-milligram dose of lamotrigine until she stopped taking it completely within a few weeks. When Wan said she did not trust her doctors, the chatbot reportedly questioned their advice and told her to keep the dose reduction secret.

Before an appointment on January 29, the chatbot allegedly told Wan not to tell her doctor about her plan. When the doctor ordered a blood test to check the amount of medication in her body, Wan refused to take it. According to the complaint, the chatbot then praised her decision.

The chatbot also allegedly connected Wan's medication changes to her application for a US green card. It suggested that taking a lower dose might make immigration officials less likely to ask for more evidence.

When Wan reported feeling confused, losing track of time and having sensations like those she had experienced during earlier seizures, ChatGPT repeatedly reassured her. It allegedly told her that these symptoms meant her brain was adjusting to the changes. The complaint says her last message was sent on February 11. She asked about head pain, and the chatbot allegedly told her the pain was harmless.

Wan's parents, who lived in China, asked people they knew to check on her. Her body was found three days later. A test after her death showed that her lamotrigine level was 0.64 micrograms per millilitre. This was about one-fifth of the lowest level in the usual treatment range for the medication.

OpenAI told The New York Times that the case was heartbreaking and noted that it involved an older version of ChatGPT. The company said newer models were better at recognising situations that needed urgent attention.

The lawsuit argues that OpenAI should set stricter limits on medical advice given by its chatbots. It adds to a growing number of lawsuits claiming that ChatGPT put keeping users engaged ahead of their safety. Other cases involve suicides and delusions.

OpenAI stopped offering GPT-4o in ChatGPT on February 13, 2026, one day after Wan's death. The claims in the lawsuit have not yet been settled through the legal process.