It was a typical day for a rambunctious 5-year-old playing outside his grandmother’s Georgia home, until something bit him. Mason was bitten by a tick on his belly button.

Per Inside Edition: The creepy crawler was removed right away, but a rash began to spread all over his body, until he was covered from head to toe. Danielle, Mason’s mother, took to the Internet to do her own research, where she found a frightening diagnosis. The tick may have given her son Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.