Ex-Navy SEAL congressman saves bleeding 11-year-old with makeshift tourniquets after Iowa crash

Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wisc., described the scene of a horrific highway crash that prompted him and other bystanders to help save an 11-year-old child this weekend.

Van Orden told the Washington Examiner that he and his family were driving in Iowa when he saw the crash in his rearview mirror.

“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,” he told the outlet.

Van Orden, a former Navy SEAL, said he quickly pulled his car over and rushed back to the scene.

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Rep. Derrick Van Orden is seen visiting an 11-year-old boy who he helped save following a highway crash in Iowa. (Courtesy: Rep. Derrick Van Orden)

“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,” Van Orden said.

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“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 added.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., attends a press conference on holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt in Washington, D.C., on June 26, 2024. (Allison Robbert/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

 “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,” he continued.

“It took about 10 to 15 minutes. He would’ve bled to death,” Van Orden said, noting that paramedics were quick to respond, but were still miles away. “He would’ve been gone.”

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Van Orden told the outlet that he visited the young man in the hospital on Monday, but he did not name the boy.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., talks with reporters after a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

A crash report from the Iowa State Patrol stated that the Saturday crash occurred when the minivan struck a semi-truck that was trying to merge onto the freeway from the shoulder.

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There were no fatalities reported in the crash, but both the boy and the van’s driver were airlifted to a nearby hospital.