Rep. Derrick Van Orden helps save life of 11-year-old boy hurt in Iowa crash
By Matt Smith
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OSCEOLA, Iowa (WISN) — Wisconsin Congressman Derrick Van Orden is credited with helping save the life of an 11-year-old boy hurt during a crash in Iowa Saturday.
Van Orden, a retired Navy SEAL and combat medic, said he was traveling with his wife on I-35 just outside of Osceola when he heard a “massive, massive boom.”
Iowa State Police said a minivan crashed into a semi parked on the side of the interstate, as it was preparing to re-enter the lanes, after stopping for a mechanical issue.
Van Orden, a Republican who represents Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, said he immediately turned around and ran to the scene.
“I ran back to the truck and opened up my suitcase and grabbed two pairs of socks,” Van Orden said 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.”
Van Orden visited 11-year-old Sawyer Whitt in the hospital Monday.
“I made it through the scariest part,” Whitt told Van Orden in a short video clip his campaign shared.
Van Orden said his family was driving to a memorial to honor his daughter, who died two years ago.
“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.”
“That was essentially a wound of war,” Van Orden added when describing the crash. “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 said the driver, a 41-year-old woman, is suspected of being impaired at the time of the crash and said an OWI drug investigation is now underway. Authorities haven’t confirmed the relationship between the woman and the boy.
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