New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog“From Missed Diagnosis to Lifelong Harm: Lessons for Patients, Doctors, A.I., and the Law”
In a case highlighted by The New Yorker—“If A.I. Can Diagnose Patients, What Are Doctors For? Large language models are transforming medicine—but the technology comes with side effects,” by Dhruv Khullar—we’re reminded how a missed diagnosis can spiral into life-altering harm and how patients increasingly turn to A.I. for answers when medicine falls short. The story of Matthew Williams, whose cecal volvulus was initially dismissed as “constipation,” illustrates both the stakes of diagnostic error and the complicated role A.I. now plays in modern care.
In 2017, Matthew Williams went from an active life to one shaped by fear of everyday foods after an emergency visit that clinicians dismissed as “probable constipation.” A missed diagnosis of cecal volvulus—an intestinal twist that cuts off blood flow and requires urgent surgery—cost him roughly six feet of intestine, and with it the ability to eat freely, social comfort, and a measure of his former life. Years of follow-up care, repeated consultations, and dietary restrictions followed before a simple experiment with an A.I. tool helped point toward a dietary explanation that clinicians had not identified.
