8-Year-Old Boy Dies 1 Day After Going Home Sick and Having No Previous Symptoms

An Oregon family is mourning the "sudden loss" of a "bright and cheerful" 8-year-old boy, who died last Tuesday after falling ill at school the day prior.

Amari King Churchwell fell ill shortly after arriving at school last Monday, according to a GoFundMe campaign set up to support the boy's immediate family. Shortly after going home with his father Kenneth Churchwell, Amari collapsed in his dad's arms.

Kenneth rushed his son to a local emergency room, where doctors discovered a mass in the back of Amari's brain that had started internally bleeding, per the family.

A drain was inserted into Amari's head to reduce pressure on his brain before he was transferred to Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland, but the boy could not be saved.

"Unfortunately, the bleeding mass left Amari with limited brain activity," the family wrote. "After much prayer, CT scans, consulting with three neurologists and exhausting all options, we had to face the devastating fact that Amari had passed."

Kenneth told FOX 12 on Thursday that doctors said the mass on Amari's brain was near the stem, which caused swelling.

The boy's mother Dawn Churchill also told the station her son had "no signs of headaches, no signs of illness, nothing" before his death.

Kenneth told FOX 12 that he asked Amari about how he was feeling after picking him up from school last Monday: "I just kind of asked him how are you feeling, he was like 'I don't know, I don't know what happened.'"

Once they arrived home, Amari's condition took a turn for the worse when Kenneth attempted to help his son out of his shirt.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

"His head just kind of fell back and his eyes rolled back, and then I knew right away something was wrong," the father said to FOX 12.

At the hospital, Kenneth told the outlet that doctors told the family that Amari had suffered a seizure. Dawn said doctors told the boy's loved ones that "no surgery could bring him back."

Amari's parents said their late son had previously talked about becoming a doctor for children in the future. Kenneth said the boy's aspirations "were just huge."

"I don't know how his cheeks didn't hurt because he was always [smiling] all the time," the father told FOX 12.

Donations to Amari's GoFundMe campaign will go toward costs related to the passing of the young boy, including medical bills and funeral costs.

As of publication, more than $38,000 has been raised toward the family's $40,000 goal.