After enduring years of misdiagnoses, a woman from Wales sought help from an unexpected source—ChatGPT—and found the answers that had eluded her doctors.
Phoebe Tesoriere, hailing from Cardiff, Wales, experienced persistent seizures, frequent falls, and balance issues. Despite numerous consultations, doctors attributed her condition to anxiety, depression, or epilepsy, cautioning her that if she continued visiting the emergency room, her case would be treated as a mental health issue, as reported by the BBC.
These troubling symptoms had plagued her since childhood, with balance being the earliest concern.
“Throughout my childhood, I walked with a limp,” Tesoriere shared. “I was born without a hip socket and underwent surgeries as an infant, so I assumed it was related to that.”
When she was 23, doctors tested her for dyspraxia, a disorder affecting motor coordination.
However, the results came back negative.
At 19, she collapsed from a seizure, according to People, and doctors put it down to anxiety, but she had a hard time buying it.
“I had no history of anxiety. I was a really happy, bubbly person,” she said.
In 2022, the young woman was diagnosed with epilepsy and put on medication — but her symptoms kept getting worse. She was struggling to walk and dealing with more seizures.
Doctors then diagnosed her with Todd’s paralysis, which can affect individuals with epilepsy.
She fell down a flight of stairs in January 2025, and after a three-month hospital stay, the results of a plethora of tests were inconclusive.
Seven months later, she suffered a seizure that left her in a coma for three days.
Doctors told her it was anxiety.
Desperate, upset and “lonely,” she turned to ChatGPT, which suggested she might have hereditary spastic paraplegia, a genetic condition characterized by progressive muscle stiffness and weakness in the legs.
Tesoriere brought the bot’s findings to her doctors, who ordered genetic testing — and confirmed ChatGPT was right.
Now in a wheelchair, Tesoriere is managing her symptoms through physical therapy. She can no longer work as a teacher, but is pursuing her master’s degree in psychology to “do something that helps people.”
In a statement to the BBC, a spokesperson for Cardiff and Vale Health Board, a regional healthcare authority in Wales that is part of the National Health Service, said: “We are sorry to hear about Phoebe’s experience while in our care.”
