The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Naegleria fowleri to be the cause of the child’s illness, the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health said in a news release Thursday.

The boy, from Lincoln County, just north of the Las Vegas area, may have been exposed at Ash Springs, a natural hot spring in the county, it said.

State health officials didn’t publicly identify the child or immediately respond to a request for his name.

His mother, Briana Bundy, said her 2-year-old son, Woodrow Turner Bundy, died Wednesday after fighting the infection.

Woodrow fought for 7 days, his mother wrote on the Facebook page Rainbows for Raynie.

“He is my hero and I will forever be grateful to God for giving me the goodest baby boy on earth, and I am grateful to know I will have that boy in heaven someday,” Bundy wrote.

Woodrow loved animals, including chickens, rabbits, cows and especially elk, and enjoyed chasing his sisters around the house, according to an obituary.

“Woodrow’s life was a testament of how we should all live. He did everything aggressively. He loved hard, sometimes too hard. He found joy and wonder in all of God’s creations and beauties. He loved life, and he loved his family with every ounce of his soul,” the obituary said.