A 2-year-old son of a Putnam County deputy sheriff was flown to Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga after an incident in a pool this week.

The sheriff’s office says Eli Whitson has not been responsive and has been on a ventilator since arriving at Erlanger.

Yesterday, authorities said Eli is still very sick but is starting to show signs of improvement. Doctors planned to remove his catheter yesterday afternoon and plans to start a feeding tube for Eli.

An EEG is planned to see what activity is going on in his brain and hopefully take him off seizure medicine.

The Whitson’s have a long journey in front of them. A GoFundMe account has been set up by the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department seeking $10,000 to cover medical expenses for Eli.

Copy and paste the following web address to go to the GoFundMe page set up:

https://www.gofundme.com/eli-whitson?fbclid=IwAR2CmiHbPosGnZixEwWpUXkTR9B8J3noZGbcG9TIIthksWAURHQBlLhusyY