Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI), a retired Navy SEAL, helped save the life of an 11-year-old boy injured in a car accident along Interstate 35 near Osceola, Iowa, on Saturday, August 16, by using makeshift tourniquets until first responders arrived, an experience he later reflected on in a post marking the anniversary of his daughter’s passing.
Van Orden and his wife, Sara, were driving south on Interstate 35 near Osceola, Iowa, on Saturday when they witnessed a devastating crash involving a Dodge Grand Caravan that veered off the road at around 70 miles per hour.
According to Van Orden, the vehicle disintegrated upon impact, leaving an 11-year-old boy severely injured. “His calf, which is about as big as my thigh, was completely ripped apart, so I could see his tibia and his fibula,” Van Orden told the Washington Examiner. “And he had an arterial bleed in his right wrist.”
Van Orden, a retired U.S. Navy SEAL and current representative of Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, immediately returned to his vehicle to grab socks from his suitcase, which he used to create makeshift tourniquets for the boy’s leg and arm.
“By then, probably 10 people had also pulled over to help, I’m like, does somebody have a knife? And they’re like, yep. So I cut the seat belts off and then made tourniquets,” he explained. With the help of other motorists who had stopped, including some who helped direct traffic and a woman who identified herself as a medic, bystanders secured the boy until paramedics arrived.
“It took about 10 to 15 minutes. He would’ve bled to death,” Van Orden stated, emphasizing the quick actions of multiple bystanders, including one man who ripped off a windshield wiper to help stabilize the boy’s arm.
Van Orden visited the boy at a hospital in Des Moines on Monday for a reunion following the roadside rescue. Reflecting on the incident, Van Orden said, “What happened out there is everything that I love about America. People just started showing up, asking, ‘Hey, can we do this? Can we do that?’ It’s amazing.”
In a post on X on Tuesday, Van Orden wrote: ‘God works in mysterious ways. This happened last Saturday but the story came out today, the second anniversary of our sweet daughter’s passing. I am so thankful to have been able to make sure this young man’s father did not join the one club you never want to be in.’”
Conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt praised Van Orden’s actions on Tuesday, noting his service as a Navy SEAL. “Bravo Congressman @derrickvanorden. I have no doubt that you saved many a life in your many years with the SEALs, but this time we get to thank you. Bravo,” Hewitt wrote.
This is not the first time Van Orden has been credited with saving a life. In 2020, while campaigning for Congress, he helped rescue a 77-year-old woman who began choking at a Wisconsin restaurant.
