Mom Goes Viral After Spotting Tick Crawling in Son’s Hair (Exclusive)

Stephanie Gorecki’s 9-year-old son had spent the day playing outside in their Illinois suburb. That night, May 4, after he went to bed, Gorecki decided to check on him one last time before turning in.

As she gently ran her fingers through his hair, she felt something.

“I thought, ‘Oh goodness, what could be in his hair? It could be anything,’ ” she recalls to PEOPLE exclusively.

The mom of two grabbed a flashlight and returned to his room. As her son slept, the beam of light revealed a tick embedded in his scalp. Gorecki was stunned. A close family friend lives with Lyme disease, and her mind immediately jumped to the worst-case scenario: What if this tick was carrying Lyme, too?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), ticks can transmit a range of bacteria, viruses and parasites — including Lyme disease, Bourbon virus and Colorado tick fever. Common symptoms of tick-borne illnesses include fever, chills, muscle aches, fatigue and rash.

If you find a tick attached to your skin, the CDC recommends removing it as soon as possible using fine-tipped tweezers. There’s no need to wait for a healthcare professional. If symptoms develop in the days or weeks after removal, it’s important to consult a doctor.

With this information in mind, Gorecki quickly retrieved a pair of tweezers and carefully removed it, then instinctively sealed the tick in a plastic bag.

“I don’t even know why I saved it,” says Gorecki, 41. “But I did, and then I posted a video about it.”

Overnight, the TikTok video blew up, amassing over 129,000 views and becoming flooded with comments and unsolicited advice.

“All of a sudden, I’m hearing from all these ‘TikTok doctors’ saying, ‘He needs antibiotics now,’ ” Gorecki says. “But antibiotics aren’t just handed out for every tick bite. You actually need a compelling reason. Otherwise, we risk resistance issues.”

She adds, “So I’m trying to sort through strangers’ advice, monitor my son’s health and do my own research, all at once.”

With questions swirling, Gorecki reached out to a trusted friend who’s a nurse practitioner.

“I messaged her right away and said, ‘Okay, I found this tick. I’m terrified. It was attached to his scalp, but I think it had only been there about six hours,’ ” Gorecki recalls. “That helped calm my nerves. Once you start gathering reliable information, your panic eases. You go from ‘Oh no’ to ‘Okay, I think we’re going to be fine.’ ”

In the days that followed, her son showed no symptoms — and to this day, he remains perfectly healthy.

Six weeks later, Gorecki shared a follow-up video showing the tick still alive inside the sealed plastic bag labeled “May 4.” That post exploded, racking up more than 15 million views and thousands of comments. One user even suggested the family name the tick Rick, which Gorecki says they’ve adopted.

“I just thought it was interesting that it was still alive,” she says. “I didn’t know they could survive that long. Apparently, they kind of live forever,” she adds with a laugh.

Prompted by the TikTok community, Gorecki decided to send the tick to a testing lab in Colorado called Ticknology. For $40, the lab identifies the tick and tests it for 10 different diseases.

She just received the results, and though she hasn’t posted them yet, the news was reassuring: the tick tested negative for all major diseases.

Since the ordeal, Gorecki says she’s learned more than she ever imagined about ticks: their types, the illnesses they can carry and just how common they are.

“We’d found them before, but after reading the comments, I realized some people deal with them constantly,” she says. “For some, it’s like, ‘What’s the big deal about one tick?’ And honestly, that’s kind of laughable. People love to share their own stories, and if I can be a place where they do that, I welcome it with open arms.”

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Now, Gorecki has added one essential step to her family’s nightly routine: tick checks.

“Every day, I check my kids, and they actually kind of like it because it feels like a head massage,” she jokes. “They’re at summer camp and outside all the time, and ticks can burrow. Kids might not even notice them. But transmission usually happens after 24 hours, so you have to catch them quickly.”

She’s also teaching her children how to check themselves. “I’ve told them: look under your arms, check your scalp, check your clothes — just be aware. Ticks are disgusting, they’re everywhere, and they’re little disease vectors.”