PHOTOGRAPH © YASUYOSHI CHIBA/DUCKRABBIT, 2011

King
We convert some Land
Cruisers into top-of-the-range
ambulances, with everything

of the
you need for a wounded
patient or a woman having
difficulties in labour. Midwife
Anna Kent describes the

road onboard equipment.

1

Strong, simple, almost

9
indestructible... the four-
wheel drive Land Cruiser
An MSF Land Cruiser ambulance battles through mud on the
is MSF’s sturdy workhorse, 1 Magnetic blue light mountainous roads of Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo
used since the early 1980s £60
in our projects all over the You charge it by plug- In numbers
The numbers
world. Logistics training ging it into the cigarette 4 5 Oxygen 700-800 £68,600
officer Robin Vincent-Smith lighter, then stick it on number of Land Cruisers cost of MSF Land Cruiser
cylinders in use by MSF converted into ambulance
explains why we couldn’t do the roof
our work without them. so that people can see £28,000 2,500 km
cost of MSF Land Cruiser, average distance driven per
Trolley
“The Land Cruiser’s an incred-
3 kitted out and ready to go month

ible vehicle – it’s basically pretty 2 Seat

much indestructible. There are no
electronics, everything’s acces-
9 Syringe pump
sible, and the design has barely
6 £638.91
changed since it was invented. 2 MSF Stickers 7 For giving emergency drugs
at the correct rate, either
There’s nothing to beat it – as £0.55 very slowly or very fast. Also
Jeremy Clarkson proved on Top You can choose how used for intravenous fluids
Gear when he tried to destroy one visible you are, but in and infusions.
and failed. some places it’s really
In Brussels, we kit them out, important for the safety
pimp them up, then ship them of staff and patients
to the countries where we work. that people know we are
MSF.
When the Land Cruiser arrives in
the field, you literally turn it on
8 8 Tyres
and drive away. It’s kitted out with
£121
everything – it’s plug-and-play.
We use four types: sand,
The newest vehicles go to the
mud, road and heavy-duty
most challenging places – to
(for transporting building
nurses doing mobile clinics deep
materials).
in the bush – that’s where they’re
ON/OFF

most needed. The old ones go to

MAX

XYZ

MIN

the head of mission in the capital.

For me, as a logistician, they’re
a lifeline. You can’t move in the
projects we work in unless you’ve
got Land Cruisers. You fall in
love with them after a while. I
give them all names when I’m in
the field, and I know which one
is coming home by the sound it
makes. That’s how important they
are to me.
The mother of one logistician
3 Mobile oxygen concentrator 4 Pulse oximeter 5 Defibrillator 6 Suction unit 7 ‘Scoop’ stretcher
phoned up our headquarters £3,240.66 £754.92 £1,586.72 £520 £588
and said, ‘My son’s just arrived Powered by batteries, it takes in This does two really If someone has a cardiac To clear an airway so that Excellent for trauma care. With the
back home in France with one of air and concentrates it to produce important jobs. It shines two arrest on the way to the patients can breathe. If patient lying on the ground, you push it
your vehicles – is that normal?’ oxygen. It’s expensive, but it’s wavelengths of light into the hospital, this is the only someone is shot in the underneath them and it clips together.
essential in areas where you can’t patient’s finger, electronically thing that will keep them chest, for example, you can The patient doesn’t have to move –
He couldn’t bear to be separated
get an oxygen cylinder. counting their pulse at the alive. get a lot of blood coming especially important if they have a neck
from his Land Cruiser so he drove
same time as calculating how out of the mouth, which can injury. It’s a very fast and safe way of
home in it.” much oxygen is in their blood. make breathing difficult. getting somebody out of the scene of
It’s small, mobile and really
robust.
Equipment not drawn to scale GRAPHIC JENNY RIDLEY
 Stretcher carriers Woman and child

Build your own Fold up

Land Cruiser
Fold in half, bend tabs
up, glue together and
cut along dashed line.
Fold in half, bend tabs up,
glue together and cut
along dashed line

ambulance Cut out and fold white

tabs down and glue
Bend hands up and
glue to stretcher
Fold in half Fold in half
Fold in half
together

Bend Bend

Fold
down

Fold Fold Fold

up up up

Fold in half

‘Scoop’ stretcher Refugee tent

Fold in half, glue Fold in half, fold
together and tabs up, glue
cut along dashed together and
line cut along dashed
line

Fold in half
Fold up Fold up

Bend Bend

Fold Fold
up up
Fold up Fold up

Fold in half

Child to put
Glue aerial to Fold down on stretcher
front bonnet
Cut along dashed
line and fold tabs
down

Tree
Fold in half, fold
tabs up, glue
together and Fold up Fold up
Fold Fold
Fold up cut along dashed down down
Land Cruiser aerial line

Fold in half, bend tabs up,

glue together and cut Fold Fold
Fold in half Fold in half down down
along dashed line

Fold up