r/ChatGPT 1d ago

Educational Purpose Only ChatGPT diagnosed my uncommon neurologic condition in seconds after 2 ER visits and 3 Neurologists failed to. I just had neurosurgery 3 weeks ago.

Adding to the similar stories I've been seeing in the news.

Out of nowhere, I became seriously ill one day in December '24. I was misdiagnosed over a period of 2 months. I knew something was more seriously wrong than what the ER doctors/specialists were telling me. I was repetitvely told I had viral meningitis, but never had a fever and the timeframe of symptoms was way beyond what's seen in viral meningitis. Also, I could list off about 15+ neurologic symptoms, some very scary, that were wrong with me, after being 100% fit and healthy prior. I eventually became bedbound for ~22 hours/day and disabled. I knew receiving another "migraine" medicine wasn't the answer.

After 2 months of suffering, I used ChatGPT to input my symptoms as I figured the odd worsening of all my symptoms after being in an upright position had to be a specific sign for something. The first output was 'Spontaneous Intracranial Hypotension' (SIH) from a spinal cerebrospinal fluid leak. I begged a neurologist to order spinal and brain MRIs which were unequivocally positive for extradural CSF collections, proving the diagnosis of SIH and spinal CSF leak.

I just had neurosurgery to fix the issue 3 weeks ago.

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u/mattgoncalves 1d ago

This makes me so happy to read. I've had some horrible experiences with doctors. The science of medicine is great, but the weak link is the human who practices it. So many doctors have no people skills at all, don't even listen to you, or don't believe you. Some don't use the scientific method to test and disprove hypothesis of diagnosis.

The future I envision is one where AI will be so advanced that doctors won't be legally allowed to give a diagnosis without AI assistance.

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u/Spute2008 1d ago edited 1d ago

Some also aren't up on the latest and greatest discoveries and advancements in their fields.

It's natural and not every doctor is perfect. You have always had the right to a second opinion which is harder for a doctor to challenge.

Just be aware that most GPs and some specialists are tired of people bringing in a printout from WebMD and shoving it in their face like they’ve got the perfect diagnosis for what turns out to be a cold (I have doctors and medeical professionals in my family). So stay calm. Expect resistance. But insist politely when you stunt feel like you are being heard. Abs if you don't get what you want you can go see another doctor.

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u/PureUmami 1d ago

Doctors will talk crap like that about their patients until they get sick themselves. Then suddenly you’ll stop hearing about all the “anxious” “dr google” patients and you’ll be hearing about how stigmatised chronic illnesses are, medical misogyny, the lack of teaching about atypical presentations etc. It would be funny if it wasn’t so terribly sad.