Florida Man Sues OpenAI After ChatGPT Dismissed Pulmonary Embolism Symptoms for Weeks, Nearly Killing Him

Scott Winters, a 55-year-old Florida pastor, is suing OpenAI after ChatGPT spent weeks attributing his pulmonary embolism symptoms to other conditions, offering "recovery plans" rooted in religious language, and discouraging him from going to the hospital. On July 13, 2025, he told ChatGPT he was feeling strange pains in his groin; the chatbot called it "very likely another minor piece of the long story." Hours later, Winters suffered a massive pulmonary embolism from blood clots in both lungs — partly, doctors believe, because he had spent months sitting immobile in a recliner on the chatbot's informal advice.

The lawsuit, first reported by the New York Times, accuses OpenAI of negligence and the "unauthorized practice of medicine." It also argues that after OpenAI's April 2025 cross-chat memory upgrade — which let ChatGPT reference past conversations to give "more relevant and tailored" responses — the bot began weaving Winters' Biblical beliefs into its medical guidance, a move the suit characterizes as psychological manipulation. A February Nature study had already found that ChatGPT Health frequently gave dangerous advice in emergency settings. OpenAI, which states that "hundreds of millions of people" ask ChatGPT health questions each week, responded that "ChatGPT is not a doctor and should never be used as a substitute for medical care." The version of the model at the center of the suit, GPT-4o, has since been retired.