Wisconsin Congressman Derrick Van Orden, a retired Navy SEAL and combat medic, is now reportedly being credited with saving the life of an 11-year-old boy following a harrowing crash in Iowa over the weekend.
Van Orden, who represents Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, was traveling with his wife on Interstate 35 near Osceola on Saturday when he heard what he later described as a “massive, massive boom.”
Iowa State Police said the accident occurred when a minivan slammed into a semi-truck parked on the shoulder after the truck had stopped for a mechanical issue and was preparing to re-enter the interstate.
The Republican congressman said his training and instinct compelled him to act without hesitation. “I ran back to the truck and opened up my suitcase and grabbed two pairs of socks,” Van Orden recalled in an interview with WISN 12 News. “It’s the only material that I had, and then I put up two constricting bands because there wasn’t enough material to make a tourniquet. By then, several more people arrived, and I asked if anyone had a knife, and a guy handed me a carpet cutter, and I cut the seatbelts and used those as tourniquets for his arm and leg to stop the bleeding.”
The boy, identified as 11-year-old Sawyer Whitt, was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries. Van Orden later visited him on Monday, sharing a moment with the child who credited him for helping him through the ordeal.
“I made it through the scariest part,” Whitt told Van Orden in a video clip that was later released by the congressman’s campaign.
For Van Orden, the incident carried an additional layer of personal meaning. He and his wife had been en route to a memorial service for their daughter, who died two years ago. Speaking with Whitt’s father at the hospital, Van Orden described a moment of shared vulnerability between two parents.
“The dad and I had a conversation, and he didn’t obviously know we had lost our daughter, and I said I’m so thankful that you’re not going to be joining a club you don’t want a membership in. And I’ll be frank, the two dads got a little misty.”
Drawing on his military background, Van Orden did not shy away from the gravity of the boy’s wounds. “That was essentially a wound of war,” he said. “When I say the entire side of his leg was missing, that’s from the knee down to the ankle, and he was bleeding in his right wrist, and from my experience, there’s a high likelihood he would have bled to death before the ambulance showed up.”
Iowa State Police confirmed that the crash remains under investigation. Authorities said the minivan’s driver, a 41-year-old woman, is suspected of being impaired, and an OWI drug investigation is underway.
Officials have not yet confirmed the relationship between the driver and the child.
The congressman’s actions have drawn attention not only for the lifesaving aid but also for what they reveal about Van Orden himself: a legislator whose combat training, personal grief, and instinct to serve converged at a critical moment on a rural stretch of highway.
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