Dispatched & Dysfunctional

🎙️ Dispatched & Dysfunctional – Guest Episode: Brent Colbert

Description:
In this guest episode, I sit down with Brent Colbert — a veteran police officer and doctoral student in leadership who’s passionate about training, mentorship, and fixing the leadership failures he’s seen firsthand.
 
Brent brings ten years of real-world experience in policing, along with a mission to change the culture from the inside. We talk resilience, bad bosses, and what it takes to push back against a broken system while still showing up for your community.
 
It’s raw, it’s honest, and it’s the kind of conversation you don’t usually hear outside the squad room.
 
⚠️ Disclaimer
The following content may include graphic details and dark humor. Listener discretion is advised. These stories are based on real-life experiences in EMS and first response. Any medical or tactical discussion is based on personal experience and should never replace your local protocols, policies, or medical direction.
 
🧠 Need support right now?
Text or call 988 or visit 988lifeline.org.
You’re not alone — not in this job, not in this fight.
 
🎧 Listen & Subscribe
Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dispatched-dysfunctional/id1823016738
Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5Qg5QirllVlFHLzRrnpucy
Amazon Music → https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/c28a5312-d5de-47c3-b692-ed3932106989
iHeartRadio → https://iheart.com/podcast/282880332
 
🧠 Need support right now? Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org. You’re not alone — not in this job, not in this fight.📱 Follow us on Facebook: Dispatched and Dysfunctional  🌐 Visit: www.critical-run.com to connect, share your story, or just vent  🎤 Got a call that changed you? Submit your story — we’ll carry it with care (and maybe a little dark humor).⚠️ Disclaimer: This podcast contains graphic content, emotional storytelling, and dark humor based on real-life EMS and first responder experiences. Listener discretion is advised.  Any medical discussion is personal opinion, not medical advice. Always follow your local protocols, medical direction, and training guidelines.This podcast isn’t about fairy tales. It’s about real calls, real chaos, and the medics who survive both.  Dispatched & Dysfunctional — because sometimes the worst calls… make the best stories.

Three Uniforms, One Stroke: Part 2

 
Guest Episode – 
Three Uniforms, One Stroke: Part 2
 
 
Dispatched & Dysfunctional – Because sometimes the worst calls make the best stories.
 
This is not a polished studio episode. It’s a raw, outdoor recording at Susan Crowder’s home — with Susan, her daughter Maizee, her granddaughter Jo, my wife Jordan, and my daughter Sophie. Background sounds, interruptions, and unfiltered honesty included.
 
🚑 In Part 2, Susan opens up about the stroke that ended everything: waking up in the hospital, multiple brain surgeries, and the terrifying reality of flipping from provider to patient. There’s dark humor, brutal honesty, and moments only another first responder could understand.
 
⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: Explicit language, graphic medical details, hospital experiences, and dark humor. This episode contains even more banter and rawness than usual. Listener discretion advised.
 
Why It Matters:
Because every responder who gives their all eventually hits a breaking point — whether it’s physical, mental, or both. Susan’s story is a reminder that even when the chaos stops, survival takes a whole new fight.
 
🧠 Need support?
Text or call 988 or visit 988lifeline.org
 
💬 “If you think it’s too heavy to say, say it anyway. It beats a eulogy.”
 
📬 Want to share your story?
Visit critical-run.com or message us on Facebook: Dispatched & Dysfunctional
🧠 Need support right now? Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org. You’re not alone — not in this job, not in this fight.📱 Follow us on Facebook: Dispatched and Dysfunctional  🌐 Visit: www.critical-run.com to connect, share your story, or just vent  🎤 Got a call that changed you? Submit your story — we’ll carry it with care (and maybe a little dark humor).⚠️ Disclaimer: This podcast contains graphic content, emotional storytelling, and dark humor based on real-life EMS and first responder experiences. Listener discretion is advised.  Any medical discussion is personal opinion, not medical advice. Always follow your local protocols, medical direction, and training guidelines.This podcast isn’t about fairy tales. It’s about real calls, real chaos, and the medics who survive both.  Dispatched & Dysfunctional — because sometimes the worst calls… make the best stories.

Three Uniforms, One Stroke: Part 1

 
Guest Episode – 
Three Uniforms, One Stroke: Part 1
 
 
Dispatched & Dysfunctional – Because sometimes the worst calls make the best stories.
 
This isn’t your normal episode. This is raw, unfiltered, and recorded outdoors at Susan Crowder’s home — with Susan, her daughter Maizee, her granddaughter Jo, my wife Jordan, and my daughter Sophie. You’ll hear laughter, interruptions, and real life in the background. That’s the point.
 
🚑 Susan wore three uniforms: paramedic, police officer, firefighter. She’s seen it all, done it all — until a stroke ended her career in an instant. In Part 1, Susan takes us back to the beginning: chasing chaos, raising kids in the middle of it, and never backing down no matter which badge she carried.
 
⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: More banter, more explicit language, and more raw emotion than usual. Includes trauma, medical emergencies, stroke, and dark humor. Listener discretion advised.
 
Why It Matters:
Because behind every uniform is a human being — and sometimes the hardest fight isn’t in the field, but in your own body. Susan’s story is one of survival, adaptation, and finding a way forward when everything changes.
 
🧠 Need support?
Text or call 988 or visit 988lifeline.org
 
💬 “If you think it’s too heavy to say, say it anyway. It beats a eulogy.”
 
📬 Want to share your story?
Visit critical-run.com or message us on Facebook: Dispatched & Dysfunctional
🧠 Need support right now? Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org. You’re not alone — not in this job, not in this fight.📱 Follow us on Facebook: Dispatched and Dysfunctional  🌐 Visit: www.critical-run.com to connect, share your story, or just vent  🎤 Got a call that changed you? Submit your story — we’ll carry it with care (and maybe a little dark humor).⚠️ Disclaimer: This podcast contains graphic content, emotional storytelling, and dark humor based on real-life EMS and first responder experiences. Listener discretion is advised.  Any medical discussion is personal opinion, not medical advice. Always follow your local protocols, medical direction, and training guidelines.This podcast isn’t about fairy tales. It’s about real calls, real chaos, and the medics who survive both.  Dispatched & Dysfunctional — because sometimes the worst calls… make the best stories.

Compassion Cost You Nothing

Compassion Costs You Nothing
Dispatched & Dysfunctional – Because sometimes the worst calls make the best stories.
Welcome to Dispatched & Dysfunctional — where the darkest moments become stories of resilience. These aren’t polished hero tales. They’re the raw, unfiltered truths of EMS: the calls that scar, the ones that save, and the ones we carry forever.
🚑 Toe pain at 3 a.m.? Another chest pain repeat? You know the ones. The regulars. The patients we sigh about as we climb into the rig. The ones we roll our eyes at — until the day they’re gone.
This episode isn’t about blood and trauma. It’s about the calls we almost didn’t care about — and the ones that still haunt us years later. A woman who laughed so hard we made her piss herself. Another we found too late, phone still clutched in her hand.
And it’s about us — the medics, firefighters, and officers who stop seeing people. Who get hardened. Bitter. Burned out. The ones who let compassion slip away because we think we don’t need it anymore.
But this job has a way of teaching you the hard truth: compassion doesn’t cost you a damn thing. And losing it? That costs everything.
⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: Graphic EMS content, death, mental health, and dark humor. Listener discretion advised.
Why It Matters:Because the “small” calls matter too. The frequent flyer. The late-night regular. The ones we think are wasting our time — until the day they’re not. Compassion is what keeps us human, and the day we lose it is the day this job takes more than it gives. Sometimes the greatest danger in EMS isn’t blood loss or trauma — it’s forgetting that every call is someone’s worst day.
🧠 Need support?Text or call 988 or visit 988lifeline.org
💬 “I’d rather hear your story than read your eulogy.”
📬 Want to share your story?Visit critical-run.com or message us on Facebook: Dispatched and Dysfunctional
🧠 Need support right now? Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org. You’re not alone — not in this job, not in this fight.📱 Follow us on Facebook: Dispatched and Dysfunctional  🌐 Visit: www.critical-run.com to connect, share your story, or just vent  🎤 Got a call that changed you? Submit your story — we’ll carry it with care (and maybe a little dark humor).⚠️ Disclaimer: This podcast contains graphic content, emotional storytelling, and dark humor based on real-life EMS and first responder experiences. Listener discretion is advised.  Any medical discussion is personal opinion, not medical advice. Always follow your local protocols, medical direction, and training guidelines.This podcast isn’t about fairy tales. It’s about real calls, real chaos, and the medics who survive both.  Dispatched & Dysfunctional — because sometimes the worst calls… make the best stories.

We Didn’t All Make It Out

We Didn’t All Make It Out
Dispatched & Dysfunctional – Because sometimes the worst calls make the best stories.
Welcome to Dispatched & Dysfunctional — where the darkest moments become stories of resilience. These aren’t polished hero tales. They’re the raw, unfiltered truths of EMS: the calls that scar, the ones that save, and the ones we carry forever.
🚑 The call came in like any other — a house fire with people trapped. By the time we arrived, flames were already chewing through the roof. Neighbors screamed, smoke poured into the street, and in the chaos a mother came running out barefoot, clutching two children against her chest. She was burned, bleeding, sobbing… but alive.
And then she collapsed in the yard. Because she had three children. And only two made it out.
That’s the kind of moment that doesn’t fade. The kind that claws its way into your memory and refuses to leave. Not because of what you did — but because of what you couldn’t.
We don’t talk enough about those calls. The ones where survival isn’t possible. The ones that leave you standing in turnout gear, smelling like smoke, staring at the family you couldn’t make whole. Those are the scars that don’t show up on skin, but they follow you through every shift after.
⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: Graphic EMS content, pediatric death, fire trauma, and mental health. Listener discretion advised.
Why It Matters:Not every call ends in survival. And not every scar is visible. This one reminded us that grief doesn’t stay on scene — it follows us home. It lives in our boots, in the smell of our gear, in the silence after shift. It’s the kind of weight you don’t shake off — you carry it, sometimes forever. And it changes the way you walk into the next fire.
🧠 Need support?Text or call 988 or visit 988lifeline.org
💬 “I’d rather hear your story than read your eulogy.”
📬 Want to share your story?Visit critical-run.com or message us on Facebook: Dispatched and Dysfunctional
🧠 Need support right now? Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org. You’re not alone — not in this job, not in this fight.📱 Follow us on Facebook: Dispatched and Dysfunctional  🌐 Visit: www.critical-run.com to connect, share your story, or just vent  🎤 Got a call that changed you? Submit your story — we’ll carry it with care (and maybe a little dark humor).⚠️ Disclaimer: This podcast contains graphic content, emotional storytelling, and dark humor based on real-life EMS and first responder experiences. Listener discretion is advised.  Any medical discussion is personal opinion, not medical advice. Always follow your local protocols, medical direction, and training guidelines.This podcast isn’t about fairy tales. It’s about real calls, real chaos, and the medics who survive both.  Dispatched & Dysfunctional — because sometimes the worst calls… make the best stories.

The One Call I Didn’t Want to Hear

The One Call I Didn’t Want to Hear
Dispatched & Dysfunctional – Because sometimes the worst calls make the best stories.
Welcome to Dispatched & Dysfunctional — where the darkest moments become stories of resilience. These aren’t polished hero tales. They’re the raw, unfiltered truths of EMS: the calls that scar, the ones that save, and the ones we carry forever.
🚑 Some tones blur together. But this one cut like a knife. Dispatch read the address, and my heart stopped — it wasn’t a stranger’s. It was my dad’s.
We train for cardiac arrests. We drill the rhythm, the compressions, the meds. We tell ourselves muscle memory will carry us through. But nothing prepares you for kneeling on your own floor, staring at your father’s face, and realizing that the job you’ve dedicated your life to just crashed into your family.
That night, EMS collided with bloodlines. And I wasn’t the medic anymore. I was the son.
What held me together wasn’t a protocol or a checklist — it was my partner. Quiet, steady, becoming the anchor I needed when my own uniform felt heavier than I could carry.
⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: Graphic EMS content, cardiac arrest, mental health, and dark humor. Listener discretion advised.
Why It Matters:Because sometimes the uniform comes off whether we’re ready or not. This call reminded me that under the patches and the titles, we’re family first. Survival in this job isn’t about being unbreakable — it’s about having someone to catch you when you shatter. And sometimes, the hardest patient to treat is your own.
🧠 Need support?Text or call 988 or visit 988lifeline.org
💬 “I’d rather hear your story than read your eulogy.”
📬 Want to share your story?Visit critical-run.com or message us on Facebook: Dispatched and Dysfunctional
🧠 Need support right now? Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org. You’re not alone — not in this job, not in this fight.📱 Follow us on Facebook: Dispatched and Dysfunctional  🌐 Visit: www.critical-run.com to connect, share your story, or just vent  🎤 Got a call that changed you? Submit your story — we’ll carry it with care (and maybe a little dark humor).⚠️ Disclaimer: This podcast contains graphic content, emotional storytelling, and dark humor based on real-life EMS and first responder experiences. Listener discretion is advised.  Any medical discussion is personal opinion, not medical advice. Always follow your local protocols, medical direction, and training guidelines.This podcast isn’t about fairy tales. It’s about real calls, real chaos, and the medics who survive both.  Dispatched & Dysfunctional — because sometimes the worst calls… make the best stories.

Naked and Afraid… of the EMT

Naked and Afraid… of the EMT
Dispatched & Dysfunctional – Because sometimes the worst calls make the best stories.
Welcome to Dispatched & Dysfunctional — where the darkest moments become stories of resilience. These aren’t polished hero tales. They’re the raw, unfiltered truths of EMS: the calls that scar, the ones that save, and the ones we carry forever.
🚑 Some calls are unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. We walked in expecting something routine — maybe chest pain, maybe a transport. Instead, we were greeted by a naked man, a broomstick, and a situation that shifted from awkward to downright absurd in seconds.
EMS has a way of throwing curveballs. One moment you’re running a trauma arrest, the next you’re trying to figure out how to handle a scene that makes you question whether to laugh, gag, or just walk back outside. This was one of those calls — the kind you can’t believe is real until you see it with your own eyes.
And as ridiculous as it was, buried under the broomsticks and the laughter, there was still a truth: chaos doesn’t always come in the form of blood and broken bones. Sometimes it shows up dressed in absurdity. And our reaction to it — the dark humor, the laughter, the look you share with your partner — is the only thing that gets you through to the next call.
⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: Graphic EMS content, adult humor, and medical discussion. Listener discretion advised.
Why It Matters:Because even the calls that make us laugh until our ribs hurt still leave a mark. Humor isn’t a luxury in EMS — it’s survival. It’s the release valve that lets us carry the weight of the job without letting it crush us. Every joke hides a truth: chaos is always waiting around the corner, and sometimes the only way we make it to the next shift is by laughing through the pain.
🧠 Need support?Text or call 988 or visit 988lifeline.org
💬 “I’d rather hear your story than read your eulogy.”
📬 Want to share your story?Visit critical-run.com or message us on Facebook: Dispatched and Dysfunctional
🧠 Need support right now? Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org. You’re not alone — not in this job, not in this fight.📱 Follow us on Facebook: Dispatched and Dysfunctional  🌐 Visit: www.critical-run.com to connect, share your story, or just vent  🎤 Got a call that changed you? Submit your story — we’ll carry it with care (and maybe a little dark humor).⚠️ Disclaimer: This podcast contains graphic content, emotional storytelling, and dark humor based on real-life EMS and first responder experiences. Listener discretion is advised.  Any medical discussion is personal opinion, not medical advice. Always follow your local protocols, medical direction, and training guidelines.This podcast isn’t about fairy tales. It’s about real calls, real chaos, and the medics who survive both.  Dispatched & Dysfunctional — because sometimes the worst calls… make the best stories.

The Ones Who Hold Us Up

The Ones Who Hold Us Up
Dispatched & Dysfunctional – Because sometimes the worst calls make the best stories.
Welcome to Dispatched & Dysfunctional — where the darkest moments become stories of resilience. These aren’t polished hero tales. They’re the raw, unfiltered truths of EMS: the calls that scar, the ones that save, and the ones we carry forever.
🚑 They see the lights. They hear the sirens. But they don’t see the ones waiting at home.
This episode isn’t about the chaos on scene — it’s about the people who keep us standing when the chaos comes home. The spouses who sit in silence until we’re ready to talk. The families who let us vent without judgment. The kids who defend us when we can’t defend ourselves. And the partners on shift who catch us when the job nearly breaks us.
We like to think we’re tough, that we can shoulder anything. But the truth is, most of us wouldn’t have made it this far without them. They’re the invisible backup — the ones who hold us steady after a pediatric code, after the suicide call, after the nights we don’t want to remember. They take on the silence, the mood swings, the sleepless nights. They carry what we can’t.
⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: EMS mental health, family strain, burnout, and dark humor. Listener discretion advised.
Why It Matters:Because the job doesn’t just shape us — it reshapes everyone around us. They’re the reason many of us are still standing, still working, still here. Their strength often goes unseen, but without them, we’d crumble. They deserve just as much recognition as the ones who run toward the chaos, because in the end, they’re the ones who keep us alive enough to answer the next call.
🧠 Need support?Text or call 988 or visit 988lifeline.org
💬 “I’d rather hear your story than read your eulogy.”
📬 Want to share your story?Visit critical-run.com or message us on Facebook: Dispatched and Dysfunctional
🧠 Need support right now? Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org. You’re not alone — not in this job, not in this fight.📱 Follow us on Facebook: Dispatched and Dysfunctional  🌐 Visit: www.critical-run.com to connect, share your story, or just vent  🎤 Got a call that changed you? Submit your story — we’ll carry it with care (and maybe a little dark humor).⚠️ Disclaimer: This podcast contains graphic content, emotional storytelling, and dark humor based on real-life EMS and first responder experiences. Listener discretion is advised.  Any medical discussion is personal opinion, not medical advice. Always follow your local protocols, medical direction, and training guidelines.This podcast isn’t about fairy tales. It’s about real calls, real chaos, and the medics who survive both.  Dispatched & Dysfunctional — because sometimes the worst calls… make the best stories.

Brains on the Blacktop, Tacos in the Gut

Brains on the Blacktop, Tacos in the Gut
Dispatched & Dysfunctional – Because sometimes the worst calls make the best stories.
Welcome to Dispatched & Dysfunctional — where the darkest moments become stories of resilience. These aren’t polished hero tales. They’re the raw, unfiltered truths of EMS: the calls that scar, the ones that save, and the ones we carry forever.
🚑 The tones dropped for a fatal on the interstate. By the time we arrived, the scene stretched for miles — an 18-wheeler had struck a man and dragged him down the highway. His body was scattered in pieces, brain matter smeared across blacktop, fragments of a life reduced to debris under the glow of our flashlights.
Gloves on, boots crunching, we did what EMS always does: piece together what’s left when tragedy tears someone apart.
And then, in the middle of the silence and the smell and the chaos, my partner broke it with a single line: “Man… I could go for some Taco Bell.”
Because when a scene is too heavy, sometimes your brain doesn’t break — it bails.
⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: Graphic EMS content, fatal trauma, and dark humor. Listener discretion advised.
Why It Matters:Because coping in EMS doesn’t always look like therapy. Sometimes it looks like bad jokes, fast food, and laughing when no one else understands why. The public sees flashing lights and headlines — but they don’t see how we carry those scenes home. Humor isn’t about making light of tragedy. It’s about making it bearable enough to come back for the next call.
🧠 Need support?Text or call 988 or visit 988lifeline.org
💬 “I’d rather hear your story than read your eulogy.”
📬 Want to share your story?Visit critical-run.com or message us on Facebook: Dispatched and Dysfunctional
🧠 Need support right now? Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org. You’re not alone — not in this job, not in this fight.📱 Follow us on Facebook: Dispatched and Dysfunctional  🌐 Visit: www.critical-run.com to connect, share your story, or just vent  🎤 Got a call that changed you? Submit your story — we’ll carry it with care (and maybe a little dark humor).⚠️ Disclaimer: This podcast contains graphic content, emotional storytelling, and dark humor based on real-life EMS and first responder experiences. Listener discretion is advised.  Any medical discussion is personal opinion, not medical advice. Always follow your local protocols, medical direction, and training guidelines.This podcast isn’t about fairy tales. It’s about real calls, real chaos, and the medics who survive both.  Dispatched & Dysfunctional — because sometimes the worst calls… make the best stories.

He Looks Like He's About to Give Birth

Looks Like He’s About to Give Birth
Dispatched & Dysfunctional – Because sometimes the worst calls make the best stories.
🚑 A new guy, first hitch offshore. GI symptoms on arrival. His supervisor thought he was faking it.
He wasn’t.
By the time I found him, his belly was tight, distended, and he could barely breathe. IV fluids. Antibiotics. Foley. Medevac launched. Surgeons later removed two feet of necrotic bowel — and told him he was six hours from rupture.
This is what it looks like when you trust your gut — and it’s right. You don’t always get a win out here. But this time, I did. And yeah… I’m proud of that.
⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: Offshore medical emergency, abdominal trauma, graphic medical discussion, and dark humor. Listener discretion advised.
Why It Matters:Because out here, hesitation kills. Offshore medicine doesn’t come with backup around the corner — when you’re wrong, the patient pays the price. Trusting your gut isn’t just instinct, it’s survival. And sometimes, getting it right means someone gets to go home who otherwise wouldn’t.
🧠 Need support?Text or call 988 or visit 988lifeline.org
💬 “I’d rather hear your story than read your eulogy.”
📬 Want to share your story?Visit critical-run.com or message us on Facebook: Dispatched and Dysfunctional
🧠 Need support right now? Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org. You’re not alone — not in this job, not in this fight.📱 Follow us on Facebook: Dispatched and Dysfunctional  🌐 Visit: www.critical-run.com to connect, share your story, or just vent  🎤 Got a call that changed you? Submit your story — we’ll carry it with care (and maybe a little dark humor).⚠️ Disclaimer: This podcast contains graphic content, emotional storytelling, and dark humor based on real-life EMS and first responder experiences. Listener discretion is advised.  Any medical discussion is personal opinion, not medical advice. Always follow your local protocols, medical direction, and training guidelines.This podcast isn’t about fairy tales. It’s about real calls, real chaos, and the medics who survive both.  Dispatched & Dysfunctional — because sometimes the worst calls… make the best stories.