A Lee County sheriff’s deputy was honored Thursday for controlling the bleeding of a rural Amboy man’s partially amputated leg at the scene of a Feb. 12 single-vehicle crash near the Green River.

Lee County Sheriff Clay Whelan presented deputy Alejandro Castro with the department’s lifesaving award at Thursday’s Lee County Board meeting.

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Lee County Sheriff Clay Whelan (left) presents Deputy Alejandro Castro (right) with the department's livesaving award at the Lee County Board meeting Thursday, April 23, 2026. (Payton Felix)

He said Castro had immediately applied a tourniquet to the man’s leg when arriving at the scene of the crash, adding that several EMS personnel contacted Whelan later and said Castro’s actions “most certainly saved this individual’s life.”

At 8:05 p.m. Feb. 12, the sheriff’s office responded to an automated crash detection alert the 911 center received from a cellphone located on Pump Factory Road, south of Arch Road, near Amboy.

Emergency responders found a 2013 Chevrolet Silverado had crashed into the guardrail and the lone occupant was severely injured, according to a Feb. 13 news release from the sheriff’s office.

About 14 minutes after the alert, Castro arrived at the scene and made contact with the victim, who was conscious but trapped in the truck, which appeared to be hanging off the east side of the bridge over the Green River, Whelan said Thursday.

Castro noted that the man’s right leg had been partially amputated below his knee and he was losing a lot of blood. Castro promptly applied a tourniquet he had with him. Within two minutes, Castro applied a second tourniquet, provided by Lee County Sgt. Matt McGrail, while waiting for emergency medical personnel to arrive, Whelan said.

“Deputy Castro did a phenomenal job of communicating with the victim to keep him conscious and alert,” Whelan said.

Members of the Amboy, Sublette and Dixon Rural fire departments removed the man from the vehicle. He was flown from the scene to OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford by OSF Life Flight in Peru, according to the news release.

“In the following days, I had several EMS personnel contact me to praise the work of Deputy Castro and advise me that the application of the tourniquet most certainly saved this individual’s life,” Whelan said.