A medical emergency is the last thing most people want to think about, but for paramedic Alexis Lombard, the stakes are clear.
“Every minute that someone is down from a cardiac arrest and there is no action taken, their survival rate decreases by 10 percent,” said North Memorial Health paramedic Alexis Lombard.
Lombard has worked in the emergency medical services industry since 2020. She said she still vividly remembers her first day on the job.
“As I drove to it, my heart rate outpaced the ambulance’s speed because I realized I’m not just driving to that emergency,” said Lombard. “It’s my job, my responsibility to save their life.”
Since then, Lombard has responded to countless calls, ranging from SWAT standbys and fires to opioid overdoses. But before she became the medical professional in the ambulance, she had already been a patient.
Her first ambulance ride happened when she was five days old.
Lombard was rushed to the hospital with critically low oxygen levels and was diagnosed with a rare congenital heart defect called total anomalous pulmonary venous return.
“They had to crack my chest — they reassembled my heart,” said Lombard. “My veins weren’t connected correctly.”
The diagnosis changed her life completely.
“I had two open heart surgeries,” said Lombard. “I use to have to take Coumadin, which is a strong blood thinner. I went to the cardiologist growing up.”
Lombard said the experience left a lasting mark on her body and on the way she sees her work now.
“They stitched titanium into my ribs, and now I live with a foot-long scar in the center of my chest,” said Lombard. “Most people in the heart survivor community call that our ‘zipper.’”
She said she is thankful to the people who saved her life and now considers it a privilege to help save others.
“It makes me take my job even more seriously,” she said. “Knowing all the interventions we can do in the ambulance and how I can best treat my patients — it’s because I had such skilled providers who changed my life.”
That connection between her own medical history and her role as a paramedic sits at the center of Lombard’s story. She knows what emergency care can mean because she has lived through it herself.
Now, her work puts her in situations where quick action matters. She has answered calls involving fires, opioid overdoses and SWAT standbys, and she has spoken openly about the pressure of being the person responsible for helping someone in a life-threatening moment.
For Lombard, that responsibility was clear from the start.
“As I drove to it, my heart rate outpaced the ambulance’s speed because I realized I’m not just driving to that emergency,” said Lombard. “It’s my job, my responsibility to save their life.”
Her focus is not limited to emergency medical work. Lombard is currently attending the University of Minnesota, where she is finishing her prerequisites for medical school.
She is also active in pageants.
Lombard is the reigning Miss Glacial Waters and is set to compete for the title of Miss Minnesota in June.
Her life has moved from the back of an ambulance as an infant patient to the front lines of emergency care as a paramedic. She said the treatment she received as a child still shapes the way she approaches every patient.
“It makes me take my job even more seriously,” she said. “Knowing all the interventions we can do in the ambulance and how I can best treat my patients — it’s because I had such skilled providers who changed my life.”