OKEECHOBEE, Fla. — A baby boy's first day on Earth began in the air.
It was a ride Lidia Bucio will never forget.
"I was screaming my lungs out," Bucio said.
The expectant mother was being taken by helicopter to HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce on Sunday.
Bucio said the medics on board were doing their best to keep her calm, but it was a race against the clock.
"I can't keep pushing him in. I have to push him out," Bucio recalled. "My body is not paying attention to what I want."
The 23-year-old, who lives on the Brighton Seminole reservation west of Okeechobee, couldn't wait to have her third child. He wasn't waiting either.
"It only took a minute for me to push him," Bucio said. "He was already crowning. I felt him slip and I was like, 'He's here!'"
As the helicopter touched down, the baby made his debut. Bucio had to alert the nurses who met the chopper.
"I just delivered my baby. Don't drop my baby. He's in the bed. Please don't drop my baby," Bucio said she told them. "I was in total shock."
Tribal custom is that no photos of the child's face are allowed until he is 4 months old and baby Dallyn gets his Native American name, his beads and his deerskin medicine bag.
"Oh my goodness, little stubborn baby, he was due Aug. 4," Bucio said.
Bucio said she can't believe how gentle he is right now, despite his loud entrance into the world.
