The Republican congressman said that what happened reflects everything he loves about America.

Congressman Derrick Van Orden (R-MN) was driving down Interstate 35 near Osceola, Iowa, on Saturday when he witnessed a car 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,” the Wisconsin Republican said. “My wife, Sarah, was like, what happened? I looked at it, I said, someone just died,” he said.

Van Orden, a retired Navy SEAL, says he parked his truck in the grass divider and rushed over to see if he could help.

“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.”

He ran back to his truck, dug into his luggage, and grabbed two socks for makeshift tourniquets. “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.”

“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.”

Van Orden says that everyone’s quick actions saved the boy’s life. Due to their remote location, first responders wouldn’t have been able to arrive in time. “It took about 10 to 15 minutes. He would’ve bled to death. He would’ve been gone.”

He later visited the boy in the hospital in Des Moines.

He said that what happened embodies “everything that I love about America.”

“We’re in the middle of somewhere, and this happens, and people just start showing up. They start asking, ‘Hey, can we do this? Can we do that?”

While Van Orden was securing the tourniquet on the boy’s leg, he said there were men behind him doing traffic control.

“It’s amazing,” he said of everyone’s eagerness to help.

On X, Van Orden noted that the accident occurred on the second anniversary of his daughter’s passing.

God works in mysterious ways.

This happened last Saturday but the story came out today, the second anniversary of our sweet daughter’s passing.

I am so thankful to have been able to make sure this young man’s father did not join the one club you never want to be in. https://t.co/NBvhbjZfjl

— Derrick Van Orden (@derrickvanorden) August 19, 2025

“God works in mysterious ways,” Van Orden wrote. “I am so thankful to have been able to make sure this young man’s father did not join the one club you never want to be in.”