Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) was traveling along Interstate 35 near Osceola, Iowa, over the weekend when he came upon a crash that left an 11-year-old boy severely injured.
The incident began when Van Orden noticed a semi-truck pulled over on the shoulder of the road.
Seconds later, he heard the sound of a collision. Looking in his rearview mirror, the congressman saw a Dodge Grand minivan crash at high speed.
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“I’m watching a Dodge Grand minivan disintegrate. It seemed to drift off the road at about 70 miles per hour, more so on the passenger side of the car. My wife, Sarah, was like, ‘What happened?’ I looked at it, I said, ‘Someone just died,’” Van Orden said.
🚨 Rep. Derrick Van Orden recently helped save an 11-year-old boy after a brutal crash — improvising tourniquets with socks to keep him alive. pic.twitter.com/K2ZHuuyn0i
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 19, 2025
The Wisconsin Republican, who is also a former Navy SEAL, represents the state’s 3rd Congressional District.
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He immediately turned his vehicle around and returned to the crash site to assist.
“I ran to the passenger side, where all the damage was, and there was this 11-year-old kid, and I looked at him, and his calf, which is about as big as my thigh, was completely ripped apart, so I could see his tibia and his fibula, just a big chunk of him bleeding. And he had an arterial bleed in his right wrist,” he recounted.
Van Orden retrieved socks from his suitcase to create improvised tourniquets.
“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 said.
He described how others quickly joined in the effort to save the child.
“Some big old Iowa farm dude, probably 60-something, rips off a windshield wiper for his arm, then another lady there said she was a medic. She wound up grabbing a piece of metal and made a tourniquet on his leg, and then all of us packed him up and got him up into the ambulance,” Van Orden explained.
The quick response likely saved the boy’s life. “It took about 10 to 15 minutes. He would’ve bled to death,” Van Orden said.
On Monday, the congressman visited the child at a hospital in Des Moines.
“There wasn’t a dry eye in the room,” he said of the meeting.
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. https://t.co/ruuP2BhMbZ
— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) August 19, 2025
Van Orden reflected on the incident by pointing to the cooperation of bystanders who stepped in to help.
“What happened out there is everything that I love about America. So we’re in the middle of somewhere, and this happens, and people just start showing up. They start asking, ‘Hey, can we do this? Can we do that?’”
He noted that while he was working to secure a tourniquet, others stepped up to manage traffic at the scene.
“We need to start doing traffic control,” he recalled people saying, as vehicles were blocked from both lanes.
“It’s amazing,” Van Orden concluded.
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