AI recognizes man's cardiac arrest symptoms and asks him to seek help: 'It did save my life'

ChatGPT has taken the world by storm, attracting both praise and criticism from users around the globe. But for Reddit user u/sinebiryan, the AI chatbot turned out to be a literal lifesaver. In an eye-opening post, he shared how ChatGPT unexpectedly alerted him to a serious heart health issue, ultimately saving his life. It all started while he was working late, focused on his computer screen in the quiet hours of 2 a.m.

That was when he started feeling a bit of tightness in his chest and felt something was off. Even though he went back to focus on his work, he kept feeling uneasy. "For some reason, I decided to ask ChatGPT about my symptoms. I wasn't even thinking it was serious, just curious. I typed in a bunch of stuff like 'what could be causing chest tightness, dizziness and nausea?' expecting some bland response about needing to get more sleep or cut back on the coffee," the post read. However, the AI bot took the queries seriously. 

"It asked about other symptoms – shortness of breath, sweating, etc. – and by then, yeah, I realized I had those too. ChatGPT then gave me a response that made me pause mid-sentence- 'These symptoms could be serious and may indicate a cardiac event or other medical emergency. Please consider seeking medical attention immediately.' It was like a lightbulb went off. I was hesitating because, I mean, it’s 2 AM, who wants to go to the hospital for what could just be anxiety or something, right? But ChatGPT's response kept popping into my head, and something told me I shouldn’t ignore it," the post continued.

He drove himself to the ER, where doctors quickly confirmed he was in the early stages of a heart attack. Thanks to timely treatment, his life was saved. "I’m still kind of stunned. ChatGPT doesn’t diagnose but the fact that it pushed me to take my symptoms seriously when I might have brushed them off. I mean, it really did save my life. Thanks to AI, I get to share this story instead of my family having to tell it to me," the post concluded. The comment section jumped in to share their opinions on ChatGPT and how AI can be useful in cases like these.

u/edreicasta wrote, "Glad you actually listened to the advice from ChatGPT on things like this. A lot of people would have just shrugged it off and not taken it as seriously as you did. Awesome that it was detected early and didn't get too serious!" u/NomadicExploring mentioned, "As a nurse who specializes in cardiac emergency, yes you were saved by your curiosity and ChatGPT. This is the power of AI and it’s increasingly showing its true potential. I’m glad you’re okay." u/ChaosieHyena added, "Chatgpt is my free therapist. Like fr, this bot is saving me thousands of pesos lol. ChatGPT helped me with my grief after losing 4 family members in a year, suddenly having hypochondria and just someone I trauma dump to without worrying about their own mental health."