“I still get chills thinking about it."
Listen, whatever your (warranted) misgivings about AI are—whether it be the ethical or environmental implications, or the potential threat to human jobs, what it says about us as a society overall, are all of the above—it’s hard not to hear this story and be a least a smidge grateful that this type of technology exists.
When Natallia Tarrien, a mom in her third trimester, felt an odd tightness in her jaw one night, she did what apparently 1 in 5 American adults do—she consulted ChatGPT.
As Tarrien shared on Instagram, she asked “Why does my jaw feel tight?” for fun, more than anything else. But when ChatGPT responded “Check your blood pressure,” things started to feel a tad more serious.
Then, when she realized her blood pressure was, in fact, really high (and climbing), the chatbot instructed her to “Call an ambulance. Now.” By the time she got to the hospital, the expecting mother’s blood pressure was 200/146. According to an interview with Newsweek, Tarrien diagnosed with preeclampsia—a dangerous pregnancy complication marked by high blood pressure—and the hospital staff told her they needed to deliver the baby immediately.
Thankfully, both the baby and mama ended up completely safe. However, doctors told Tarrien that if she had gone to sleep that night, she may not have woken up.
“I still get chills thinking about it. All of this started from one small symptom — and one random question. Thank you, ChatGPT. You saved two lives,” Tarrien wrote in her post’s caption.
Down in the comments, people shared similar experiences.
One person wrote, “Chat GPT told me the same thing. I had appendicitis and surgery the following morning….”
“Chatgpt told me the meds my doc insisting on gave me parkinsonism and the practice was unethical.. it was right,” another echoed.
Others noted how refreshing it was to see Chat GPT used this way, and argued that this should be the standard.
“Ok, I know many people are against the use of AI, but THIS is an example of how it could be beneficial for us. Sometimes, we can't get medical care immediately either because of time or money, this solves it. Also, there are many cases where doctors misdiagnose patients because many (not all) don't care or just want to take more money out of their patients. AI? It gives you an objective diagnosis. Accurately,” one person wrote.
Granted, and even Tarrien added this disclaimer, ChatGPT and all other forms of AI are also wildly inaccurate on a lot of things, and a lot of the time, and shouldn’t replace the medical advice of actual, human doctors. But more than anything, what this story does highlight is how easy it can be to dismiss a seemingly minute symptom, and completely miss the life threatening warning it’s giving off. This can be especially true for pregnant folks, because, let’s be honest, you’re dealing with a lot of weird symptoms during those nine months, and beyond.
And image of someone using ChatGPTPhoto credit: Canva
If artificial intelligence can be a tool (key word there) to help us not second guess ourselves in that department and at least follow-up on questionable bodily things, then great.
