Ex-Navy SEAL congressman recalls reuniting with boy he helped after near-fatal car crash

An Iowa freeway became the scene of a dramatic rescue when the quick actions of Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., and other bystanders helped save an 11-year-old boy with severe injuries.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., was driving through the Hawkeye State to visit family on the anniversary of his daughter’s passing when he witnessed a minivan slamming into a semi-truck in his rearview mirror.

He immediately returned to the scene to help and found a child with severe injuries to his leg and wrist.

“I grabbed some socks out of my suitcase to make constricting bands and then, as people showed up on the scene, I asked if someone had a knife and cut away the seatbelts and was able to fashion two tourniquets, one for his leg and one for his arm, to stop the bleeding,” he recalled on “Fox & Friends First” Thursday.

The instant he saw the crash in his mirror, Van Orden suspected someone had died. 

“I’m just incredibly thankful [he survived],” he added.

The boy, identified by local news as Sawyer Whitt, suffered devastating injuries from the crash, including an arterial bleed in his right wrist and calf wounds that made his tibia and fibula visible. 

Others at the scene, including a farmer who used a windshield wiper as a splint and a medic who fashioned a tourniquet from metal, worked alongside Van Orden to stabilize Whitt until paramedics arrived.

Van Orden, a retired Navy SEAL who described himself as an “experienced combat medic,” said Whitt would likely have died without their intervention.

He described Whitt, as well as first responders who arrived at the scene, as “heroes.”

“They were just amazing,” he recalled. 

“The paramedics that got to the scene about 10 or 15 minutes later were simply heroic. I’m so proud to be an American right now.”

Though there were no fatalities reported in the crash, both Whitt and the van’s driver were airlifted to a nearby hospital.

The Wisconsin lawmaker paid Whitt a visit on Monday, where he was thanked for his heroic actions.

“I said, ‘You’re welcome, young man. And you’ve got a great future ahead of you,’” he shared.

“I was able to speak to his dad, who clearly didn’t know that our daughter had passed, and I said, ‘Sir, our daughter passed two years ago, and I’m very thankful that you don’t have to share that experience.’ It was a very humbling moment with his dad.”