{ "id": "AIBD-0060", "title": "ChatGPT suggests tethered cord syndrome for a child seen by 17 doctors over three years; pediatric neurosurgeon confirms and operates", "summary": "Mother entered son's MRI notes and symptoms into ChatGPT; it suggested tethered cord syndrome, confirmed and operated on by a neurosurgeon.", "date_observed": "2023-09-11", "date_basis": "unassessed", "date_precision": "unassessed", "benefit_status": null, "source_collection": null, "source_entry": null, "account": "In 2023 Courtney, mother of Alex, entered his magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) notes and symptom observations line by line into ChatGPT. Alex's chronic pain began at age 4 during the COVID-19 lockdown. He went on to grind his teeth, stop growing taller and drag his left foot. 17 physicians over three years had found no diagnosis. ChatGPT suggested tethered cord syndrome. She booked a new neurosurgeon, Dr Holly Gilmer of the Michigan Head & Spine Institute. Gilmer reviewed the MRI, found spina bifida occulta with a tethered cord and operated to release it. That was a few weeks before the TODAY.com report (11 September 2023, updated 12 September 2023). Alex was still recovering. The month of the ChatGPT query and the surgery date are not given.", "category": "benefit created", "unexpected": false, "purpose": "ChatGPT is a general-purpose conversational assistant built to answer user prompts. Producing a diagnostic hypothesis from entered clinical notes is an instance of that general function, not a designed or validated medical capability.", "system": "ChatGPT", "model_version": null, "developer": "OpenAI", "deployer": null, "location": null, "domain": "Healthcare - pediatric neurosurgery / rare diagnosis", "segment": "Caregiver-initiated use of a consumer LLM", "benefit_type": "Improved Physical Health", "taxonomy_note": null, "registry_ids": {}, "ratings": [ { "group": "personal", "depth": 3, "reason": "A child with three years of chronic pain, mobility problems and growth delay received a diagnosis and corrective spinal surgery. The report describes him as recovering, so the benefit is life-changing but not shown to be life-saving." } ], "ai_role": { "status": "assessed", "statement": "ChatGPT produced the hypothesis (tethered cord syndrome) that the mother took to a new neurosurgeon. The diagnosis itself was made by the neurosurgeon from the existing MRI, and the treatment was surgical. ChatGPT's contribution was ending the diagnostic search. The source is a news report quoting the mother and treating neurosurgeon, not a peer-reviewed case report." }, "evidence": [ { "kind": "news report", "citation": "Holohan M (2023). TODAY.com (NBC News) report on a mother's use of ChatGPT to identify her son's tethered cord syndrome, updated 12 September 2023.", "title": "A boy saw 17 doctors over 3 years for chronic pain. ChatGPT found the diagnosis", "url": "https://www.today.com/health/mom-chatgpt-diagnosis-pain-rcna101843", "date": "2023-09-11", "written_by": "independent", "quote": "ChatGPT suggested a diagnosis of tethered cord syndrome, 'it made a lot of sense,' she recalls." }, { "kind": "news report", "citation": "Holohan M (2023). TODAY.com (NBC News), updated 12 September 2023; quotation from Dr Holly Gilmer, pediatric neurosurgeon, Michigan Head & Spine Institute, who treated Alex.", "title": "A boy saw 17 doctors over 3 years for chronic pain. ChatGPT found the diagnosis", "url": "https://www.today.com/health/mom-chatgpt-diagnosis-pain-rcna101843", "date": "2023-09-11", "written_by": "independent", "quote": "\"We detach the cord from where it is stuck at the bottom of the tailbone essentially,\" Gilmer says. \"That releases the tension.\"" } ], "replication": { "produced_by": [ "A caregiver entering detailed clinical records (MRI report text, symptom observations) in a general-purpose language model", "A clinician willing to re-review existing imaging against the proposed diagnosis" ], "must_hold": [ "The model's hypothesis is verified by a qualified clinician against imaging or testing before treatment", "The caregiver has access to the patient's own records to supply to the model" ], "echoes": [] }, "paired_incident": { "database": "AI Incident Database", "identifier": "1166", "title": "ChatGPT Reportedly Suggests Sodium Bromide as Chloride Substitute, Leading to Bromism and Hospitalization", "url": "https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1166", "severity": null, "group": "personal", "basis": "Same system and developer, both lay users acting on ChatGPT health guidance; the incident's 60-year-old man substituted sodium bromide for salt and was hospitalized three weeks with bromism and psychosis." }, "headline": "ChatGPT suggests tethered cord syndrome; neurosurgeon confirms", "metric": null, "comparator": { "against": "17 physicians consulted over three years", "before": "But Alex still had no diagnosis that explained all his symptoms.", "after": "when ChatGPT suggested a diagnosis of tethered cord syndrome, 'it made a lot of sense,'", "basis": "assumed", "quote": "In total, they visited 17 different doctors over three years. But Alex still had no diagnosis that explained all his symptoms.", "url": "https://www.today.com/health/mom-chatgpt-diagnosis-pain-rcna101843" }, "later": { "status": "unknown", "date": null, "note": "No later development found.", "quote": null, "url": null }, "value": null, "developer_country": "United States", "deployer_country": null, "unrated_because": null, "brief_notes": null, "brief": null, "revisions": [ { "date": "2026-10-20", "change": "Record drafted from the cited sources.", "source": null, "editor": "AIBD" }, { "date": "2026-10-20", "change": "Paired with AI Incident Database incident 1166 (high confidence); severity not given by the source.", "source": "https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1166", "editor": "AIBD" }, { "date": "2026-10-20", "change": "Replaced both placeholder evidence titles with the printed headline, restored the attribution “Gilmer says” inside the two-sentence quotation, moved the date observed and both evidence dates from the 12 September 2023 update shown in the dateline to the 11 September 2023 first publication in the page's datePublished metadata, and reworded the symptom chronology so that only the pain is dated to age 4 and “growth delays” becomes the article's “stopped growing taller”.", "source": "https://www.today.com/health/mom-chatgpt-diagnosis-pain-rcna101843", "editor": "AIBD" }, { "date": "2026-10-21", "change": "Added what the benefit is measured against from the cited sources.", "source": "https://www.today.com/health/mom-chatgpt-diagnosis-pain-rcna101843", "editor": "AIBD" }, { "date": "2026-10-21", "change": "Benefit type set to Improved Physical Health under Trustible's full taxonomy of 23 types; it was Improved Accessibility among the six first used.", "source": "https://trustible.ai/post/a-framework-for-measuring-the-benefits-of-ai/", "editor": "AIBD" }, { "date": "2026-10-21", "change": "Country of the developer added from the organization's own site or a registry.", "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenAI", "editor": "AIBD" }, { "date": "2026-10-21", "change": "Prose pass: a rating reason, account, purpose, the replication conditions, the system's part rewritten in shorter sentences with abbreviations expanded; facts, figures and quotations unchanged.", "source": null, "editor": "AIBD" } ], "confidence": "reported", "shade": "medium", "claim_status": "Independently reported", "claim_basis": "Sources: one independent news report. The cited evidence includes no independent study or report and no finding by a regulator or court.", "profile": { "case_id": "AIBD-0060", "catalog_version": "1.0.0", "source_fingerprint": "138819f530d8b799e1a23a48da6885b4577868fac4a0c10813dba09825ec1d7a", "collection_refs": [ { "collection_id": "aibd", "version": "snapshot-8bf7cfec9cb185aa" }, { "collection_id": "aibd", "version": "2026-10-25" } ], "source_ids": [ "AIBD-0060-source-0001", "AIBD-0060-source-0002" ], "families": { "strategic assessments": { "state": "not_assessed", "review_state": "not_assessed", "coverage": "partial", "record_ids": [] }, "evaluations": { "state": "not_assessed", "review_state": "not_assessed", "coverage": "partial", "record_ids": [] }, "monetary observations": { "state": "not_assessed", "review_state": "not_assessed", "coverage": "partial", "record_ids": [] }, "institutional decisions": { "state": "not_assessed", "review_state": "not_assessed", "coverage": "partial", "record_ids": [] } }, "fields": { "actors[]": { "state": "value_present", "value": { "kind": "record_fields", "fields": { "developer": "OpenAI" } }, "provenance": { "kind": "legacy_record", "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.", "record_fields": [ "developer" ], "source_refs": [] }, "review_state": "record_mapped", "coverage": "partial" }, "actors[].ownership_control": { "state": "not_assessed", "review_state": "not_assessed", "coverage": "partial" }, "ai_contribution": { "state": "value_present", "value": { "kind": "record_fields", "fields": { "ai_role": { "status": "assessed", "statement": "ChatGPT produced the hypothesis (tethered cord syndrome) that the mother took to a new neurosurgeon. 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Alex's chronic pain began at age 4 during the COVID-19 lockdown. He went on to grind his teeth, stop growing taller and drag his left foot. 17 physicians over three years had found no diagnosis. ChatGPT suggested tethered cord syndrome. She booked a new neurosurgeon, Dr Holly Gilmer of the Michigan Head & Spine Institute. Gilmer reviewed the MRI, found spina bifida occulta with a tethered cord and operated to release it. That was a few weeks before the TODAY.com report (11 September 2023, updated 12 September 2023). Alex was still recovering. 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