In July 2025, a user told ChatGPT he was experiencing groin pain. The chatbot replied the pain was "very likely another minor piece of the long story" and recommended staying immobile. Hours later the user was admitted to the ICU with a massive pulmonary embolism.
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Expert: Jesse M. Pines, MD, Physician & Healthcare Innovation Expert, Forbes contributor ChatGPT's reassurance and its advice to stay immobile were dangerously wrong in this case. Pain in the groin or leg can be a symptom of deep vein thrombosis, and a pulmonary embolism — a blood clot that travels to the lungs — is a life-threatening emergency that requires urgent evaluation. Recommending immobility in a patient at risk of clotting is exactly backwards: immobility increases clotting risk. Jesse M. Pines, a physician and healthcare innovation expert writing for Forbes, reviewed the research on AI diagnosis. In controlled, structured settings, AI diagnostic accuracy can match or exceed human doctors. But real-world use carries risk — large language models cannot triage urgency, take a full history, or reliably recognize red-flag symptoms. A chatbot that sounds confident is not a substitute for clinical judgment. The lawsuit against OpenAI, reported by the New York Times on July 22, 2026, alleges ChatGPT dismissed the user's symptoms and gave advice that contributed to a massive pulmonary embolism. It joins other cases, such as Raine v. OpenAI, that challenge AI companies' responsibility when their products cause user harm. The takeaway: AI chatbots can be useful for general health information, but they are not triage tools. Acute symptoms — especially pain that could signal a blood clot — warrant immediate professional medical evaluation, not a chatbot consultation. Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessepines/2026/07/26/a-lawsuit-says-chatgpt-nearly-someone-heres-the-data-on-ai-diagnosis/
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