As artificial intelligence becomes more advanced, ChatGPT continues to win over its biggest skeptics with its wide range of capabilities.
ChatGPT is a sophisticated tool that can curate intelligent responses to human queries. The uses for ChatGPT are seemingly endless, but a concerned mother found the chatbot to be a valuable asset in diagnosing her son’s chronic illness. After leaving 17 highly-educated doctors stumped, ChatGPT was able to accurately diagnose the child.
A Mom Noticed Her Son Showing Signs of Struggle
During the pandemic, one mom named Courtney noticed that her four-year-old son, Alex, had been exhibiting worrisome symptoms.
The young boy was in significant pain, would chew on various things, and even stopped growing taller. Courtney took him to multiple doctors and in 2021, she noticed that Alex was having difficulty balancing his left and right side. “He would lead with his right foot and just bring his left food along for the ride,” she said.
Alex Needed Medicine to Get Through the Day
Other people also took notice of Alex’s ailments. According to Courtney, Alex would react negatively if he wasn’t given daily pain medicine to regulate his symptoms.
“(Our nanny) started telling me, ‘I have to give him Motrin every day, or he has these gigantic meltdowns,” she said. “If he had Motrin, he was totally fine.” Realizing that her son was really suffering, Courtney sought to get him some help.
No Doctors Were Able to Identify Alex’s Illness
After countless doctor visits with different physicians over a three-year span, Courtney was left without any concrete answers about her son’s condition.
Feeling helpless, she decided to turn to ChatGPT for help. She entered the boy’s symptoms into the chatbot and hoped to finally get some insight into what was happening with Alex. She was desperate to do whatever she could to alleviate her son’s pain and discomfort.
The Mom Desperately Turned to ChatGPT for Clues
When ChatGPT quickly generated results, Courtney was not prepared for what it was about to tell her. ChatGPT diagnosed Alex with having a spinal cord abnormality, which was a condition that was never mentioned during Alex’s many doctor’s visits.
“I went line by line of everything that was in his (MRI notes) and plugged it into ChatGPT,” she said. Courtney’s mother’s instinct told her that “a structural thing could be wrong” with her son, but she wasn’t expecting ChatGPT to be the one to diagnose it.
Was This the Answer Courtney Had Been Looking For?
Courtney also revealed that Alex was unable to sit with his legs crossed in a “criss-cross applesauce” pose.
His inability to position himself in a simple pose was a “huge trigger” for her. Of the results that ChatGPT generated, the chatbot suggested “tethered cord syndrome” as one of the potential causes. After conducting further research, Courtney found that tethered cord syndrome is a neurological condition where “the spinal cord is attached to surrounding tissue of the spine.”
She Stayed Up All Night Researching ChatGPT’s Results
After frequent trips to the doctor with little progress made to help Alex’s unknown illness, Courtney knew she had to take matters into her own hands.
Using ChatGPT was the most viable option she could come up with and she was willing to try just about anything to help her son. “We saw so many doctors,” she said. “We ended up in the ER at one point. I kept pushing,” she says. “I really spent the night on the (computer) … going through all these things.”
She Took ChatGPT’s Suggestion to the Next Doctor’s Appointment
Courtney was determined to gather as much information and support as she could, so she joined a Facebook group to connect with other parents of children with tethered cord syndrome.
She was shocked when she read story after story that sounded just like what was happening with Alex, but she was also relieved to have some answers after a three-year search. At Alex’s next neurosurgeon appointment, Courtney mentioned the possibility of tethered cord syndrome to the doctor. After an MRI, the doctor was able to locate where Alex’s spine was tethered.
ChatGPT Was Able to Do What Doctors Couldn’t
After ChatGPT accurately suggested tethered cord syndrome as Alex’s diagnosis and a doctor confirmed it, the young boy underwent surgery to fix his spine.
Courtney was extremely grateful that ChatGPT was able to take a closer look at what was ailing Alex. Without ChatGPT, Alex’s condition may have gone undiagnosed for years. Courtney has utilized the chatbot in the most unexpected yet miraculous way.
Doctors Can’t Still Be Replaced by ChatGPT
Even though ChatGPT effectively diagnosed Alex’s mystery illness, doctors are still wary of the artificial intelligence chatbot.
Dr. Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, president of the American Medical Association, has warned of the dangers of relying on ChatGPT instead of licensed medical professionals. “OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other generative AI products currently have known issues and are not error-free,” he said. Of course, ChatGPT is not without flaws, neither are humans.
But Some Doctors View ChatGPT as the Future of Medicine
An ongoing issue with ChatGPT is that it can make up inaccurate answers and it can be prone to basic computer errors.
Although most doctors advise not to trust ChatGPT with your medical needs, many are impressed by the chatbot’s capabilities. Harvard-trained physician Dr. Isaac Kohane dissected the latest version of ChatGPT in his book, “The AI Revolution in Medicine.” In the book, Dr. Kohane wrote that GPT-4 could very well be more competent than some of the doctors he’s observed.
Is ChatGPT Smarter Than Some Humans?
ChatGPT’s potential may be something worth investing in. ChatGPT has already shown proficiency in performing various tasks, and now medical assistance can be added to the list.
The advanced chatbot is able to answer U.S. medical exam licensing questions with 90% accuracy, which is a higher score than many physicians who have taken the exam. To access GPT-4, you must be a paid subscriber of the ChatGPT service.
