Rep. Derrick Van Orden of central Wis. helps save the life of a boy in Iowa highway crash

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6 hours ago

MADISON - Derrick Van Orden retired from the U.S. Navy more than a decade ago, but his training as a combat medic was front of mind Saturday when the U.S. Congressman witnessed a high-speed crash unfold in his rearview mirror.
Van Orden, a Republican who represents the 3rd Congressional District, which includes Stevens Point and Wisconsin Rapids, said as he was traveling south with his wife, Sara, on Interstate 35 in south central Iowa, he looked in his side mirror and saw a Dodge Grand Caravan "disintegrate" as it crashed into a semi tractor-trailer that was stopped on the side of the freeway.
"Sara said, 'what happened?' And I was looking at that and I said, 'someone just died,'" Van Orden said in an interview.
Van Orden said he swung his truck around, parked about 50 feet from the crash, and ran to the wreckage to find a mother and her son in the van.
Van Orden is a retired Navy SEAL and has extensive training in providing quick medical treatment in combat situations. Eleven-year-old Sawyer Whitt's injuries were not unlike what Van Orden has witnessed in the military, he said.
"His leg was just shredded — his lower leg. His tibia and fibia were exposed … his flesh was just gone," Van Orden said. Whitt's arm was also bleeding from a "huge laceration," Van Orden said.
Van Orden said he sprinted to his truck and retrieved two socks to fashion the first tourniquet for the boy to slow his bleeding. Quickly, other motorists stopped to help, and the group used a windshield wiper, a metal rod from a car jack, and seatbelts as splints and tourniquets to keep Whitt from bleeding to death.
Van Orden said while he and the team of passersby tended to Whitt and his mother, others stopped traffic.
"Then I hear 'we need to do traffic control,' and I turn around, and it is not a cop. They hadn't shown up yet. These are just average Americans," Van Orden said. "They went out there, just regular dudes flagging down traffic, and they went to block off the highway to protect us. It was really amazing."
Whitt and his mother, Natasha Lyons, were airlifted from the freeway to hospitals in nearby Des Moines, according to the Iowa State Police crash report. Lyons is suspected of driving while impaired, according to the state police. A spokesman for the Iowa State Police did not respond to questions about the crash.
As of Tuesday, Whitt was in stable condition and in "good spirits," according to a UnityPoint Health spokesman. Whitt's parents did not respond to a request for an interview.
Van Orden said he visited Whitt in the hospital on Monday and told him the day of the crash was his "alive day" — a term members of the military use to recognize the day they almost died in combat.
The account of Van Orden's actions to help save Whitt's life were first published by the Washington Examiner on Tuesday, Aug. 19 — the anniversary of the death of Van Orden's daughter. He said the event will make him think of the meaning of the anniversary differently.
"I had a conversation with the dad and I said, you know, Sara and I lost our daughter two years ago and I'm so thankful you don't have to go through that experience."
Molly Beck can be reached at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Rep. Derrick Van Orden helps save the life of boy hurt in Iowa crash
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