Slava Marcus will be leaving Billings with a cowboy hat and a new leg.

Marcus traveled from the town of Krasnoyarsk in Siberia to Billings on a medical visa - a trip that covered 15 time zones - to be fitted for a prosthetic limb.

"He came this whole way by himself without a translator," said Scott Hildebrand, a certified prosthetist/orthotist at Montana Orthotics and Prosthetics.

It would be an exaggeration to say Marcus doesn't speak a word of English. He speaks three: "steak," "beer" and "vodka." To get around town, he has a piece of paper with the address of his hotel written on it. At restaurants, he points at items on the menu and hopes for the best. He carries a laptop computer so he can translate Russian into English.

His big change is that he now walks with a cane instead of crutches. "I have three kids and they have never seen me walk," he said with the help of a local Russian speaker.

Around 14 years ago, Marcus' left leg was injured in a hunting accident. He underwent 29 surgeries and walked with the help of crutches.

"He was trying to make it right," Hildebrand said. "There wasn't anything left to make it right, and they actually made it worse."

Articles, advice

In October, on the advice of Dr. Robert Schultz of Billings Clinic's Orthopedics and Sports Medicine department, Marcus' doctors amputated his leg below the knee. Schultz, who befriended Marcus' orthopedic surgeon Oleg Gendin in 1992 when a group of five Billings Clinic physicians traveled to Russia on an outreach program, supplied the Russian surgeons with how-to articles and advice.

"I don't think they'd ever done one before they did this guy's," Schultz said. "They certainly are not in the same league as us as far as their medical capabilities."

In Russia, above-the-knee amputations are common, but a below-the-knee amputation is rare. The above-the-knee amputation, Schultz said, "is not nearly as functional."

Hildebrand demonstrated the difference in prosthetic limbs needed for the two amputations and the type of movement that is needed to walk with a prosthetic. He called the below-the-knee amputation "a much better amputation. They're more mobile."

Because this kind of amputation is uncommon, Marcus made the trek to Billings for his new leg.

On Wednesday, Marcus arrived at Montana Orthotics and Prosthetics, where Hildebrand and his staff were waiting for him. Before talking to Marcus via translator, they communicated by computer translation, which tends to choose the most common meaning of a word - not always the correct one.

"I didn't want to say anything that would tick him off," Hildebrand said, and laughed.

Despite the language barrier, the team at Montana Orthotics and Prosthetics was able to get Marcus fitted with his prosthesis and walking on his own two shoes.

"He brought his shoe all the way from Russia," Hildebrand said. "A lot of people forget them just going across town."

Walking again has been relatively smooth for Marcus.

"He was on crutches for 14 years," Hildebrand said. "For him to walk this well to begin with - it makes you feel good as a practitioner to see that."

Marcus demonstrated his walking by traveling back and forth in a room at Montana Orthotics and Prosthetics. Although he exerted himself a bit, unused to the sensation, a wide smile revealed his golden teeth.

"It doesn't hurt at all," he said several times. "Completely good."

Big plans

Now that he can walk again, Marcus has big plans. After he leaves Billings on April 22, he's stopping in Las Vegas - "since I'm already here," he said - and then it's off to New York City to visit some friends who live there. When he returns home, he'll be going back to the medical clinic he owns. Before his injury, he owned a couple of beauty salons and a car dealership. And he'll be going back to the family waiting to see him walking on his own.

"I already called home a couple of times and told them," he said. "They're excited for me to come home."

At home, Marcus will still have physical therapy to work on, and he will have to deal with the inevitable shrinkage of an amputated limb.

"The muscles kind of shrink down because they're not being used," Hildebrand said.

To a point, Marcus can combat the effects of that shrinkage by covering his leg with specially made "socks" that he can add on to make the prosthesis fit snugly. Eventually, he will need a new top for his prosthetic leg.

For now, though, he was enjoying the freedom of walking on his own.

"Scott did everything in two days, so now I can walk," he said. "We don't have anything like this in Russia."