Dispatched & Dysfunctional

In the Silence Beyond Sirens: A First Call's Weight

First Ride: Carrying the Weight
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.
🚑 On my very first EMT ride-along, I expected the basics — maybe a lift assist, maybe a transport, something easy to ease me into the field. Instead, I was dispatched to a presumed death at a Ronald McDonald House.
Inside the room, the silence said more than anyone could. A young mother sat in a rocking chair, holding her three-month-old baby. The father stood close by, one hand on her shoulder, frozen in the kind of grief that robs words from a room. My job wasn’t to save. It was to carry. To take their child from her arms and place her into ours.
That was my first real call. Not lights, not adrenaline — but a weight I’ve carried ever since.
⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: Pediatric death, grief, and graphic emotional content. Listener discretion advised.
Why It Matters:Because EMS isn’t just trauma and broken bones. It’s the quiet rooms, the whispered goodbyes, the thousand tiny funerals no one outside this job ever sees. It’s learning too early that grief doesn’t stay at the scene — it follows us home. Talking about it doesn’t make us weak. It makes us human. And sometimes, talking is the only thing that keeps us alive.
🧠 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.

PTO Pain – The Night the Tractor Won

PTO Pain – The Night the Tractor Won
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.
🚑 One night I was out in the yard, trying to fix my son’s ATV before crew change offshore. It was supposed to be quick. Instead, my old Kubota tractor slipped, rolled, and pinned my ankle in the dark.
The weight crushed down and the pain hit like fire. I’ve worked trauma scenes before, but nothing prepares you for becoming the patient — lying on the ground, helpless, realizing you might not be able to get yourself out.
What followed was its own brand of chaos: the scramble to get free, the ride to the ER, the surreal blur of X-rays, fracture blisters, surgery delays, and the kind of conversations where doctors hedge their bets instead of giving answers. And of course, the gallows humor that only EMS could deliver — because within hours, my coworkers had already turned it into a meme: “Stockton got run over by a John Deere.”
This story isn’t just about an accident. It’s about how quickly control turns to chaos, and how even responders need support when the sirens are for them instead of because of them.
⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: Graphic EMS content, traumatic injury, and dark humor. Listener discretion advised.
Why It Matters:Because sometimes the responder becomes the patient. And when that happens, it strips away the illusion of control. Pain and vulnerability replace adrenaline and training. This story is a reminder that we’re not invincible — and we’re not supposed to be. Survival isn’t just about grit. It’s about leaning on coworkers who crack jokes to keep us laughing, and families who hold us up when we’re down. The truth is, the tractor wins sometimes. But the people around us make sure it doesn’t keep us down forever.
🧠 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.

I Opened The Door

I Opened the Door
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.
🚑 Offshore, the bonds we form are closer than family. Weeks at sea, long hours, and shared meals convince you that you know the people beside you. You laugh together, work side by side, and share the silence when shifts drag long. But silence can hide battles deeper than any injury we’re trained to treat.
This wasn’t a call that came over the radio. It was one I stumbled into by accident — a locked cabin door, bottles of liquor on the counter, and that stillness that makes the back of your neck prickle before you even know why. I turned the handle, and on the other side was a life already gone.
No alarms. No trauma to fix. Just silence, and the realization that we don’t always get the chance to save.
This episode isn’t about broken bones or blood on the floor. It’s about the weight of silence, the unanswered questions, and the way those moments echo long after the ship sails on.
⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: Suicide, EMS mental health, and graphic discussion. Listener discretion advised.
Why It Matters:Because not every call ends with CPR, a medevac, or a chart. Some end in silence — and those are the ones that follow us home. This story is a reminder that checking in, asking the question, or simply showing up might be the difference no one else sees. We don’t always get to control the outcome. But we do control whether someone feels seen before it’s too late.
🧠 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 Quiet Killer: Complacency in EMS

The Quiet Killer: Complacency in EMS
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.
🚑 In EMS, we prepare for chaos — the mangled cars, the gunshots, the fires that light up the night. We expect adrenaline. We expect noise. But sometimes the most dangerous threat doesn’t arrive with flashing lights or screaming patients. Sometimes it comes quietly.
It shows up in the ignored alarm, the skipped vital signs, the gut feeling we shove aside because we’re tired, burned out, or running on autopilot. It creeps in when we stop seeing patients as people and start seeing them as just “another call.”
This episode digs into the silent killers of EMS: complacency and burnout. The moments when your mind drifts for just a second. The call where one detail slips past you. The shift where you realize too late that the thing you missed was the thing that mattered most.
Through real stories, raw reflection, and the dark humor that keeps us afloat, this is a reminder that vigilance isn’t optional — it’s survival.
⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: Graphic EMS content, workplace fatigue, mental health, and dark humor. Listener discretion advised.
Why It Matters:Because it’s not always the screaming trauma that kills — sometimes it’s the quiet. Complacency doesn’t roar; it whispers. It sneaks in when we’re worn thin, burned out, and too numb to care. And when it does, patients pay the price. This is a reminder that speaking up, trusting your gut, and staying present — even in the quietest moments — can mean the difference between life and death.
🧠 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 Rules of Three: Gas, a Corpse, and a Machete

The Rules of Three: Gas, a Corpse, and a Machete
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.
🚑 It was supposed to be simple — a wellness check. Knock, talk, clear the scene. Instead, the second we walked in, the smell hit us. Gas in the air, a decomposing body in the back, and before we could even process that, a family member waving a machete.
And just when we thought we had seen it all, another patient dropped into a full seizure in the middle of the chaos. Three emergencies. Zero warning. All in one call.
This wasn’t just a bad shift. It was the kind of night that reminds you EMS doesn’t follow rules — it makes its own.
⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: Graphic EMS content, decomposition, violence, seizure, and dark humor. Listener discretion advised.
Why It Matters:Because even “routine” calls can spiral into disaster. This one proved that being BLS doesn’t mean basic — it means being first in, staying calm when everything goes sideways, and holding the line until more help gets there. It’s a reminder that in EMS, chaos doesn’t come one at a time. It comes all at once.
🧠 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.