Comic and medic used a bot to trawl the latest research

Comedian and doctor Ed Patrick has recalled how he saved his mother’s life with the help of AI.

It happened after he had been called by hospital staff who told him that his mother, Ann, who suffers from Parkinson’s Disease, was near death after she began suffering non-stop fits and convulsions.

At his mother’s bedside at the hospital in Nottinghamshire, Patrick used AI to scour medical journals and identified a vitamin deficiency linked to her medication as a possible cause. Staff then gave her a vitamin dose that appeared to stop the seizures.

‘I got a phone call from the hospital’s medical registrar who told me they’d tried all the anti-seizure medications and they weren’t working’ the comic told Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine Show. "Sorry, she’s dying", the registrar told me. "Do I have time to make it?", I said. "Yes, but you’ve got to leave now" was her reply.’

When he arrived at the hospital, Patrick’s mother was totally unconscious, suffering continuous fits and going into kidney failure.

The comedian and anaesthetist used Google’s Gemini AI tool to summarise recent medical journal articles relevant to his mother’s condition and symptoms.

He then relayed it to the neurology consultant, explaining that the seizures were almost certainly a rare side effect of a vitamin B6 deficiency, possibly caused by her long-term use of carbidopa-levodopa, a combination drug commonly used to boost dopamine levels in Parkinson’s patients.

Medical staff agreed to give Ann an intravenous supplement of vitamin B6, which appeared to stop her seizures.

Patrick says she  hasn’t had a seizure since in happened in May. 'The next day the family and medics were all ecstatic. The neurologist was high-fiving me.’

The consultant neurologist, Dr Bruno Gran from Nottingham University Hospitals, told the BBC: ‘As an anaesthetist, Ed has a strong understanding of clinical pharmacology and his reasoning was sound.

‘What we did not anticipate was the speed and magnitude of the response. Within minutes of administering vitamin B6, Ann’s seizure activity stopped.’

Ann has since made a full recovery from the seizures. And Patrick said her day-to-day cognitive Parkinson’s symptoms have dramatically improved.

’It’s like we’ve got mum back’, he said. ’It feels like we found a silver bullet. She’s sharp as a tack.

’She’s been given a really good quality of life from a solution we never even knew was there. Cognitively, it’s like she’s gone back in time five to 10 years.’

Patrick has now started talking about it in his stand-up show, Numb And Number, which is currently touring the UK.

He told Chortle: ‘After such a seismic event, I was in a completely different headspace and felt incredibly unsure about whether to mention the events [on stage]. 

‘Initially, I wasn’t planning on talking about it at all. But I arrived at the first show and thought, I have to. It was the massive thing hanging in the air. 

‘So I decided to share the story, not really knowing what to expect. The audience’s reaction was unbelievable. It’s still developing, but it connects to other elements. Ultimately, it’s a story that needs sharing because I know it can help others, and I’m excited to see how the show continues to shape up.’

Patrick piloted Infectious Personalities, a Radio 2 chat show about medical issues in 2020, and published a memoir, Catch Your Breath, about juggling comedy and medicine, the following year.

- by Jay Richardson

Published: 2 Oct 2026