ST. JOHNS COUNTY, FLA. -- Mason Sturms was a healthy 4-year-old boy, who loved being a big brother and loved superheroes. Captain America and Spider-Man were his favorites.
"He was just a very sweet boy. We like to say that he was our superhero, and his superhero strengths were he just was very kind and loving, and he always had this sense of humor that just you know he kept us laughing every single day," said Erin Sturms, Mason's mother. "He just he had so much love for life."
Shortly before Labor Day she got a call from Mason's daycare.
"He had a fever, and I took him directly to a pediatrician’s office and he tested positive for strep. We immediately got him on antibiotics, and he seemed to do very well and was back to school on Wednesday per the pediatrician," Erin Sturms said.
A few days later, he got another fever, headache and vomiting, and his parents took him to see a doctor again.
"We just assumed he was fighting the strep throat," Erin Sturms said.
When Mason became very lethargic and started breathing heavily, his parents rushed him to Wolfson Children's Hospital. He underwent a series of tests and a lumbar puncture.
"There were increased white blood cells and protein which pointed to meningitis, and we were admitted to the hospital," she said.
"We just assumed we would be there for a very short time and they would decide whether it was bacterial or viral and hopefully be home in 24 to 48 hours," she said. "But maybe 2 hours in to being admitted to the hospital, he began having seizures and that was the last time we were able to communicate with him because he continued to have seizures and he was heavily sedated."
Mason died Sept. 6, less than two weeks after he was diagnosed with strep. His mother says his cause of death was listed as meningoencephalitis, or meningitis. Inflammation of the brain and surrounding tissues usually caused by an infection.
His parents don't know how he contracted it.
"We're still left wondering if it was bacterial or viral, and so you know that makes it very difficult," Erin Sturms said.
She was told it could take six weeks for test results to come back, and even then, she still may not have an answer.
"We were hoping we would be able to give parents information to help them to know whether or not they need to take their children [to the hospital] but we've talked on multiple doctors who have told us that we absolutely did everything that any parent would have and could have. We do understand that it's very significant when a child has a headache. That's something that shouldn't be taken lightly, and the vomiting as well. Those are two pretty serious signs that meningitis could be involved, but those are also signs of a child with strep throat," she said. "So it's hard to say that you know that we would have done anything different given all of the information."
Mason's parents are now focused on continuing his legacy. In the weeks before his death his mother noticed he had started to collect change around the house.
"He said, 'Mommy, I'm saving it for kids who don't have toys' and so you know right away we just knew that we wanted to do something with his legacy," she said. "So we turned that into a charity for him to help provide for other kids to fulfill that mission for him for them to have toys."
His parents started the Superheroes 4 Mason charity. They're collecting superhero toys, and the donations have started pouring in.
"We've already been in touch with Wolfson's as we would really like to pay it forward to them for all the kindness that they showed us while we were in the hospital, and they were nothing short of amazing, you know trying to do everything that they could for him," Erin Sturms said.
If you would like to make a monetary donation this is a link to Superheroes 4 Mason, and superhero toys can be dropped off at Southside United Methodist Church.
"We just feel like this is going to bring us so much joy to continue with his mission. This was something we felt deep in our hearts he would have wanted. He knew it was important to give to other people," she said.