It started with the screech of tires and a shattering of glass — a scene no one wants to witness, let alone live through. But for Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-MN), that tragic moment on an Iowa highway became something more than a brush with disaster. It became a reminder of what, in his words, makes America great.
Van Orden, a retired Navy SEAL and current congressman representing Wisconsin’s 3rd District, was driving down Interstate 35 near Osceola, Iowa, when he saw the blur of a Dodge Grand Caravan veer off the road. In his rearview mirror, he watched the vehicle “disintegrate” at 70 miles per hour. What followed was the kind of response that doesn't make headlines every day — but should.
“I looked at it, I said, someone just died,” he recalled. But rather than waiting for emergency crews, Van Orden did what he's been trained to do: he ran toward the crisis.
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
Inside the crumpled van, he found an 11-year-old boy with catastrophic injuries. The child’s calf was shredded to the bone, with a visible tibia and fibula, and he was bleeding out from his wrist. Van Orden sprinted back to his truck, grabbed two socks, and fashioned tourniquets — improvising with what he had. By then, others were joining him — 10 strangers turned first responders.
One by one, ordinary Americans became heroes. An Iowa farmer in his 60s snapped off a windshield wiper to use as a brace. A female medic used a piece of metal to make another tourniquet. Someone handed Van Orden a knife. Another began directing traffic. This was America in action — a grassroots rescue mission, born from instinct, grit, and compassion.
And it worked. The boy was stabilized and loaded into an ambulance. First responders arrived minutes later — minutes that would’ve come too late without the crowd's intervention. The congressman later visited the boy at a hospital in Des Moines.
And as if the moment wasn’t already searing enough, Van Orden later revealed that the accident happened on the second anniversary of his own daughter’s death. “God works in mysterious ways,” he posted. “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.”
