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

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:

🧠 Need support?

💬 “I’d rather hear your story than read your eulogy.”

📬 Want to share your story?

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:

🧠 Need support?

💬 “I’d rather hear your story than read your eulogy.”

📬 Want to share your story?

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:

🧠 Need support?

💬 “I’d rather hear your story than read your eulogy.”

📬 Want to share your story?

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:

🧠 Need support?

💬 “I’d rather hear your story than read your eulogy.”

📬 Want to share your story?

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:

🧠 Need support?

💬 “I’d rather hear your story than read your eulogy.”

📬 Want to share your story?

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:

🧠 Need support?

💬 “I’d rather hear your story than read your eulogy.”

📬 Want to share your story?

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:

🧠 Need support?

💬 “I’d rather hear your story than read your eulogy.”

📬 Want to share your story?

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

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:

🧠 Need support?

💬 “I’d rather hear your story than read your eulogy.”

📬 Want to share your story?