Northridge : Baby’s Arrival Makes Stylists a Cut Above
The staff of We Care Hair sure lived up to the salon’s name Tuesday.
When a woman ran into the hair salon on the 9000 block of Balboa Boulevard in Northridge about 2:45 p.m., yelling that her cousin in the car outside had just had a baby, Annabella Rieger, Ingrid Williams and Maritza Elijah sprang into action.
They called 911. Put some wet paper towels on the mother to cool her off, the dispatcher said. Rieger, the salon’s owner, ran out and wiped the mother’s forehead. Williams untied the umbilical cord and wrapped it around the infant girl’s foot.
Tie the umbilical cord with a shoelace, the dispatcher said. Rieger, unable to pull off her shoelace, yanked one off one of her stylists and bound up the cord.
The baby was blue, and the dispatcher told the impromptu nurses to wash its mouth. They did, and the infant turned a healthy pink as paramedics arrived and whisked the mother, Olga Diaz, and her baby off to Northridge Hospital Medical Center.
Diaz, 23, of Pacoima, and her new daughter, Diana, were in good condition Tuesday night, according to hospital staff.
The ebullient We Care Hair staffers were still giddy Tuesday afternoon, toasting one another with sparkling cider.
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