Nurse News: ChatGPT Lawsuit Over Missed PE, cyclospora & the School Nurse Who Said No

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I'm Colton Lord, your host. By you being here today, it shows me that you are someone who wants to learn, Grow, laugh, connect, and just let your emotions flow. We are here to share real stories and hear real life experiences from real people. You are not alone in this, and Club Nurse is here to show you that. Don't forget to follow the show and share today's episode with someone you love. Now let's dive into today's conversation.

Hello everybody. Welcome back to the Club Nurse Podcast. My name is Colton Lord and I am your host, and we are going to cover some nurse news today. If you have never listened to the Club Nurse Podcast, Uh, we really focus on nurse news, uh, current events in healthcare and in the nursing world. Uh, every now and then you will see a guest on here highlighting, um, an awesome nurse who is doing something great or not. Maybe they're even not a nurse. I've had people on here who have been patients and yeah, not everybody is a nurse that has come on the Club Nurse Podcast. For the most part, we focus on news and things that are happening and to keep you most up to date. If you hear any story and maybe you want more details that have, you know, links to further, uh, resources and news outlets, you could always go to nurse.org/news and you can find all of the recent articles, breaking news on that website. And within each article, there are links embedded that literally have resources and where this information is coming from. So I really encourage you to do that if you would like some more information. And if you just feel like maybe I didn't go deep enough into a story or headline that you want to know more about, if you want to just make sure that you are getting updated because they will at nurse.org update the articles with breaking news, uh, anything that has been updated to a story that is being covered. They do a really great job at keeping those up to date. If you listen to the last episode, I think it was the last one, I told you it is hot here in Southern California, girl. I do not have air conditioning in my apartment, so yeah, I'm still sweating. I have not stopped sweating since last week and the week before that, but we are surviving, okay? We're not thriving, but we are surviving. I will also note, if anybody cares out there, I did start a new job back in the emergency department, which I have not been in in over a year, this week. And so that's fun. I actually haven't hit the floor yet, but as of right now, tomorrow's my first day back on the floor. So if you're listening to this, send me the good vibes, send me the good luck, and hope that my black cloud that used to follow me around has gone somewhere else to rain on somebody else's parade. Anyway, let's get into some nurse news. We're going to talk about a man suing ChatGPT for unlicensed practice of medicine over a missed pulmonary embolism. Thank you, ChatGPT. We are going to talk about the cyclospora outbreak, and I believe it's 41 different states now. We are going to talk about a float nurse who has opened her own med spa, which, you know what, so many people have done this. So many nurses have decided to go this route. And girl, if that's for you, Do it. There are so many success stories out there. If it's something that you're passionate about and you want to get into, I encourage you to try. Why not? And then we're also going to talk about a school nurse who was fired after refusing an assignment, as there are some looming questions if the nurse was correct or if the if the school district was following their policy and the state's laws. The nurse was basically fired. For— she had like absenteeism, um, and the final straw was a shift that she felt uncomfortable going to, feeling that, that they were asking her to practice outside of her scope of practice. Um, and it's pretty interesting. Uh, you can see, uh, the— let me just make sure I have this correct— uh, Nurse Converse. Um, there is an episode that Jana Price did kind of going really deep into the story because there's a lot to cover on there, but we'll talk about that a little bit. as well. But let's talk about this first story about ChatGPT being sued for unlicensed practice of medicine over a missed pulmonary embolism. So a man named Scott Winters is a 55-year-old former Florida pastor, is suing OpenAI, ChatGPT, and CEO Sam Altman, alleging the chatbot repeatedly dismissed his symptoms and told him to rest in a recliner, contributing to a near-fatal pulmonary embolism. This case is among the first to allege that a chatbot's health advice caused physical injury, Claims include negligence, unlicensed practice of medicine, and defective product design, spotlighting the AI safety bias and liability concerns nurses have been raising about tools entering clinical care. Winters is seeking damages and asking the court to pause ChatGPT Health pending an independent audit. OpenAI says ChatGPT is not a doctor and never should never replace medical care. So basically, the story about what happened is this man, Mr. Scott. Winters, who is a former pastor being represented by the tech nonprofit Tech Justice Law, who was described as a litigation and advocacy organization bringing justice to individuals and communities harmed by tech products. So the suit was filed on July 21st, I believe this was of 2025, I believe. I will make sure that I have that information correct. But basically what Mr. Scott Winters is saying— yes, in July of 2025 Winters developed groin pain and again turned to ChatGPT. According to the complaint, the bot dismissed it as very, quote, very likely another minor piece of the long story tied to previously discussed gut and pelvic floor issues. The next morning, Winters was admitted to the ICU with a massive pulmonary embolism caused by blood clots in both lungs. His physicians attributed the clots to weeks of immobility, according to the complaint. Now let's turn back a little bit. The reason that he was so immobile was Because Winters began using ChatGPT in 2024 for everyday questions. When Winters described dizziness and blood pressure instability in June of 2025, the bot allegedly advised him to stay home and remain recliner-bound. That's in quotes. Winters followed that advice for weeks, limiting his movement. The complaint states that the bot told Winters, your current careful recliner-based micro-recovery is exactly what's buying your future. The suit adds that Winters took the bot's suggestions to ignore family and friends urging To visit the hospital with the bot writing, in quotes, God did not design your body to endlessly fail. Because remember, these chatbots are remembering every little detail about you. They are learning you. I've used ChatGPT for a while, okay? I have long gotten rid of this. I mentioned this in my last podcast, that my, my outlook on AI has changed. I don't think it's going anywhere, and I think, ugh, it's, it's such a hard place to be in. As humans, but I really am starting to see the downfall and the negative aspects of it more and more. And it's something like this, the chatbot gets to know you, they personally know who you are, and it's crazy. And you know, in this exact scenario, they started using lines like, God did not design your body to endlessly fail, to a former pastor and encouraging him to be immobile for long periods of time to deal with being dizzy and blood pressure instability that allegedly Led to this patient having bilateral pulmonary embolisms and being admitted to the intensive care unit. Wild. First of all, don't ask ChatGPT for medical advice. If it's something very simple, you do your role. But there's doctors for a reason. There's telehealth for a reason. And I get it. I get it. I get it. I think this is going to be more and more common. This just adds another layer with the lack of medical insurance and healthcare and how difficult it is to get access to care in this country because everything is so freaking expensive that I. I do worry that people are going to use ChatGPT more and more and more because it's inexpensive and it's at their fingertips and they trust it because it's something that makes you feel like it's your friend. And I'm telling you, I remember like asking it questions and building a rapport with it and like having conversations with a chatbot. It's weird.

I don't know how to—

I don't know another, like, a better word to describe it other than like it's a very weird and odd thing that we are doing as humans. But allegedly, OpenAI spokesperson Drew Posteri told the New York Times that ChatGPT's terms of service state the chatbot isn't meant for medical diagnosis or treatment. Still, he said the company takes seriously its responsibility to make health answers as safe as possible, acknowledging that people turn to the tool for that purpose. He cautioned that treating chatbots as the whole story behind medical outcomes oversimplifies a bigger challenge and said newer models better flag uncertainty and recognize when someone needs professional Yeah, they better recognize, girl. This is wild, wild, wild, wild times. I don't know. I'm not here to give medical advice over a podcast. Okay. But, um, I would consult with your doctor if you're having concerns of your health and not your chatbot.

Okay.

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Let's talk about the cyclospora outbreak in 41 states. Hospitals have started pulling their green and leafy vegetables, and what nurses need to know. This is the headline of this article talking about this outbreak. So the CDC has confirmed 4,173 domestic cyclosporiasis. I hope I said that right. Cases across 41 states since May 1st, more than 16 times last year's pace, with 308 hospitalizations and the source still unknown. Hospitals like. I said have pulled lettuce and leafy greens from their cafeteria as precaution. And let's talk about where this is mostly. Like I said, 41 states have been affected, with the top states being Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia. And it's tied to a shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell. So those people who were probably having some GI issues after their Taco Bell probably just thought, yeah, this is just a normal day at Taco Bell. No, girl. No, girl, you had the cyclo— cyclo— cyclosporiasis. I really— I'm sorry. Okay, I'm, I'm a nurse. I'm not a, um, whatever, you know, whatever the word is that needs to know these biologists. So cyclosporiasis is a gastrointestinal illness caused by the microscopic parasite Cyclospora cyatidensis. Why do they make this so hard to say? Um, that people become infected by consuming contaminated food or water. The illness is not usually spread from person to person, which is good to know. I don't think we're going to have a global pandemic. All of us spreading our germs around. That's a great thing to know. Um, cases— case counts typically rise in spring and summer, and the CDC considers May 1st through August 31st the annual cyclosporiasis season. Compared to other common GI bugs— the norovirus, salmonella, E. coli— cyclosporiasis is much rarer in the U.S., with it being most common in tropical areas such as Central America, South America, Asia, and Africa. These are the things to know, nurses. Symptoms typically begin about 1 week after exposure, with an onset window of 2 to 14 days. Per the CDC. The most common presentation is frequent watery diarrhea along with loss of appetite and weight loss, bloating and increased gas, nausea and fatigue, less commonly low-grade fever and vomiting. 2 features matter most for the triage and bedside assessment. First, untreated cyclosporiasis can follow a remitting-relapsing course lasting from days to a month or longer. Oh my God. So the patient whose stomach bug keeps coming back deserves a second look this summer. Second, Diagnosis requires stool testing that specifically identifies this parasite, and can be missed if the lab isn't asked to look for it. So that's important, and that's probably mostly for our ER nurses or patients who are admitted to the hospital who are going to have this test done, who are going to have the lab come around. Nurses usually do collect this. I will say the lab doesn't usually come around. If I remember correctly from my inpatient days, lab will come for your blood, but girl, they ain't coming for the stool sample. So this is a nurse needs to know. Make sure the lab is aware what we are testing for, which. Hello, if you're sending a stool sample, I don't know. I suppose most of these hospitals. Yeah, if you're sending a stool sample, it probably isn't specifying the cyclosporitis parasite. So cyclospora. So that is important to know. Hopefully, this doesn't last long. Oh, I guess we should know the treatment of this. So treated with Bactrim along with rest and fluids to maintain hydration per Michigan DHHS. Bactrim Bactrim disrupts the microbe's ability to produce the folic acid it needs to replicate. Patients with sulfa allergies should discuss alternatives with their provider. Immunocompromised patients face higher risk of prolonged illness and should be encouraged to seek testing and treatment early. That is according to Johns Hopkins. So now we know all about the cyclospora outbreak. All right, we'll touch on this briefly. This is awesome. Float nurse to med spa owner: how one ADN RN built a thriving business. So Stephanie Dickens, RN, is the owner of the Med Lounge in Fenton, Michigan. She built her business from a background as a float nurse with a bachelor's— without a bachelor's or business degree, excuse me. The med spa owner encourages other nurses who fear they lack the right credentials to pursue their dreams. And I agree. You know what? I've worked for these med spas. I worked for one in Boston. I worked for a mobile IV place in the Scottsdale area. And these, these med— yeah, these med spas, med lounges can be a very lucrative business. And if it's something that you are wanting to do or you're passionate about, I encourage you to look into it. Even working for one is a great idea, is a great way to kind of get away from that bedside. I don't know. Do I want to say nonsense? But get away from that bedside life and shake it up a little bit. So congrats to Stephanie Dickens from Fenton, Michigan. This is super awesome. It looks like her the Med Lounge PLC is a successful med spa business that offers cosmetic injections, weight management resources, peptide therapy, IV therapy, a men's health program, and vitamin injections. Yeah, where I've worked, girl, you can get B12 injections. Glutathione. Um, you can get, you know, the whole banana bag. A lot of them— I've worked for one that offers Zofran, Toradol. We even offered Benadryl, which I don't think a lot are offering Benadryl because it's kind of hard to justify why you're giving somebody Benadryl, um, not in a hospital setting through an IV. If you've ever had it, that stuff will knock you out, girl. If you want a good nap, IV Benadryl. So that's that. All right, the last thing we're going to cover is the school nurse who was fired after refusing an assignment. The investigation questioned staffing and scope. So basically, like I said, this is a long— I read, I read through this whole article. It's a pretty long one. I do encourage you to go look at this on the nurse.org webpage. Type in school nurse fired and you'll, you'll see it pop up. A Millville area school district, which is in Pennsylvania, says Mariah Benjamin was fired for missing 11 of 55 workdays as a probationary employee. Benjamin says the final absence was different. She declined to cover 2 buildings alone because she believed doing so without a certified school nurse would put her outside her LPN scope of practice. Whether she was told a certified school nurse would be available was never settled. The administrator who arranged backup coverage testified she did not recall telling Benjamin, then later told the hearing officer she had. Neither the board nor the hearing officer resolved the conflict. So yeah, they initially had said that they didn't tell her, and then they said that they did. So there was like a, like a, like conflict in, in their statement, in their story. The Pennsylvania Department of Education guidance states that a supplemental RN or LPN LPN may not be assigned a student caseload. The hearing never examined it, and the board voted to terminate without issuing findings on Benjamin's scope of practice concerns. Um, like I said, there is a podcast with where they talk in depth about this with, uh, Jana Price. It's on the Nurse Converse podcast. Um, so I would encourage you to go listen to that because that's going to be a lot more accurate, a lot more in depth of the story. It is actually very interesting, and from my understanding, it never really came to a resolution. Um, and the big question mark was because, like you— like I said, there has to be a certified school nurse that's overseeing an RN or an LPN, and there, there— it's unclear if she had one. They had asked this LPN to oversee 2 buildings, but the conflicting story is if there was a certified nurse, school nurse, who was available by phone call, um, at another school. So there's, there's all this conflicting information. From what Mariah Benjamin is saying is that she did not Was not given this information, and she was uncomfortable with practicing outside of her scope. Which you know what? It is not easy to speak up, especially to superintendents or to administration. It's hard to do, and I really applaud her for this because it costed her. It costed her a job, but she felt like it was outside of her scope of practice. And imagine if she had gone in and something had happened; they'd be questioning, and of course she'd be the first one to be like. They'd be like, "Well, why were you doing this outside of your scope of practice?" We already know nurses already know that the board would be. They would come at her for sure. And so unfortunately. Unfortunately, it costed her job. To me, there's just there's just so many red flags in the story with the school district not being clear, and the big issue was that they had to delay school by a couple hours because they didn't have coverage. And so, of course, as everyone does, they are blaming the nurse when to me it really sounds like they dropped the ball. They didn't have coverage, and I don't think that they had clear answers on if she had a certified school nurse to report to. And I applaud. I applaud Mariah Benjamin. If you're listening, I doubt you are, but girl, I applaud you. I think the nursing community applauds you and we are behind you. And I think that if there's ever a situation where you feel like you are practicing outside of your scope and you're uncomfortable, you should speak up because that's what the patients deserve. That's what these kids deserve. And that's what every human deserves is a nurse that's going to do the right thing even when maybe everyone is looking down on them. So yes, if you want to know more, like I said, this is a very in-depth— it kind of goes through this whole case of Ms. Mariah Benjamin. But that's it, guys. That's it for nurse news this week on the Club Nurse Podcast. Uh, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for listening. I hope that everybody has a wonderful week. I can't believe it started the end of July. We're almost into August, which is crazy. And so yeah, if y'all have kids, they're all going to be going back to school. Crazy. That's crazy times. I really can't believe it's almost August. But anyway, Wish me luck on my new job in the ER. I will report back to you guys and let you know how it's going, and we'll chat soon. My name is Colton Lord, and this is the Club Nurse Podcast.

Bye. From the bottom of my heart, I wanted to thank you for being here at Club Nurse. I hope you gained something valuable from today's episode, and if you did, remember to share this episode with someone that you love. Follow me on socials at @NurseDaddies or @ColtonLord17, and be sure to follow nurse.org to stay informed with all of the hottest healthcare topics. Until next time, take care of yourself the way you take care of everyone else. Love ya. Bye.