Urgent care clinic's terrible mistake left teenage girl screaming with horror over HIV test result

By WILKO MARTÍNEZ-CACHERO, US REPORTER Published: 21:45, 17 July 2026 | Updated: 21:57, 17 July 2026 A Georgia teenage girl was left devastated after she allegedly received a shocking HIV test result that would have changed her life from an urgent care clinic. The teen, who asked to remain anonymous over privacy concerns, discovered that she had tested positive for HIV upon checking her online health portal in June, WSB–TV reported. Her mother said that she was woken up by the screaming teen around 2am, who explained that she 'just didn't feel good at that moment.' 'I was just crying,' she told the outlet. 'I felt like my life was over.' The mother said she forced her way into the teen's bedroom after hearing the yells of agony. When she got in, she claimed she found her daughter on the floor after a suicide attempt. The family alleged that no one from Pickens Urgent Care in Decatur, Georgia, reached out to explain the result or provide counseling or follow–up care, causing the desperate mom to take her daughter to four other facilities for testing and find out that it was a false positive. 'Everything came back negative,' the mother said. A teenage girl in Georgia claimed that she felt like her life 'was over' after allegedly seeing a positive HIV test on her online health portal The mother and her teen daughter claimed that no one from Pickens Urgent Care had reached out after the girl's account displayed a positive HIV test result She claimed: 'The clinic never contacted us. The doctor didn't contact us.' A nurse at one of the four HIV clinics that the mom took her teen daughter to was supposedly the one who encouraged her to dig further. 'She said, "Mom, this is a false positive,"' the mom recalled, alleging what the nurse told her. The mom said the nurse told her: 'Do your research on that clinic. Do your due diligence.' Now, the teen wondered about what would have happened if she and her family had simply accepted the alleged initial results. 'What if I didn't go to another clinic to get tested?' the teen said to the outlet. 'I would have just gone on thinking that I had it,' she added. An employee at Pickens Urgent Care told WSB–TV that patients who were getting tested for HIV were typically given follow–up appointments within five days. However, the family claimed that the teen's health portal showed no such appointment. Under CDC guidance, additional counseling should be provided once an HIV diagnosis is confirmed after a follow-up test, in the case of an initial positive result through antibody test They also alleged that the clinic only finally reached out to the mother once local media pressed into her claims. An apparent screenshot provided by the family to the outlet alleged that the last office visit to Pickens Urgent Care had taken place on June 26. In Georgia, no specific agency regulates urgent care centers, according to the outlet. Instead, the doctors, nurses and other medical professionals working there are individually licensed and regulated by their respective state licensing boards. Under current guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), anybody who receives a positive HIV result via an antibody test requires a follow–up test for confirmation. If that test is positive, the diagnosis is confirmed and additional counseling should be provided. The need for immediate medical care and psychosocial support should also be evaluated, health authorities said. The CDC recommends that all patients between 13 and 64 years old get tested for HIV at least once as part of their routine care. The Daily Mail has reached out to Pickens Urgent Care for comment.