Seventeen-year-old Vladislav Makarov is relearning how to walk.

Seventeen-year-old Vladislav Makarov is relearning how to walk.

By LINDA M. LINONIS

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

CANFIELD — This Christmas is like no other for Vladislav Makarov.

He’s celebrating the holiday on his first trip to the U.S.

He’s participating in a family Christmas since being abandoned by his parents.

He’s getting prosthetic legs.

While some teenagers will be surfing the Internet on new computers, programming their iPods or playing with video games, this 17-year-old is getting fitted for his new prostheses and relearning how to walk.

Vlad lives at the Renewal Orphanage in Dmitrov, Russia. He was one of the many orphans that the Rev. Kathryn Adams of Canfield met in 2006 and earlier this year. The Rev. Mrs. Adams, who has coordinated 15 “To Russia With Love” mission trips to orphanages there, is the director of Protestant Campus Ministries at Youngstown State University and pastor of Fairview United Methodist Church in Niles.

Vlad and the doctor at the orphanage, Galina Pokocilova, arrived Dec. 17 along with Yunna Sotova, a volunteer at the orphanage, who is their translator. Their trip had been delayed because of red tape getting visas.

“When the team members met Vlad, we started to wonder if we could bring him over to be fitted for prosthetic legs,” Mrs. Adams said. “It was a leap of faith to believe we could.” She said plans for Vlad’s trip started in 2006.

“In Russia, they don’t have the advancements in prosthetics that we do here,” Mrs. Adams said.

Pokocilova agreed. “We’re so grateful for this opportunity to help Vlad. Now he has a real chance; he wouldn’t have this chance in Russia. We know that America has high-quality advancements in prosthetics that we don’t,” she said through the interpreter.

Sarah Hennessey, 22, who has been on mission trips with Mrs. Adams, her minister mother, first e-mailed Sotova about the plan. Then Sotova told the doctor, who told Vlad. “I didn’t believe it at first. I thought it would be too difficult,” Vlad said.

“Getting visas can be unpredictable,” Sotova said. “Because Yunna is a young, unmarried woman ... the government is fearful she won’t return to Russia. You have to prove that the trip is a good cause, and she had to show job ties to guarantee her return,” Mrs. Adams said. Sotova is a marketing manager for a real estate company.

Once that was taken care of, the threesome traveled two hours from the orphanage to Moscow and then 12 hours to the United States. Mrs. Adams and members of the mission team met the travelers at the Pittsburgh airport.

Sotova will be in the U.S. until Jan. 24 and Pokocilova just a week. They are being hosted by a mission team member, Denise Wise of Columbiana.

Vlad will stay for as long as three months, depending on how his rehabilitation progresses. He is staying with the Adams’ family in Canfield, which includes Mrs. Adams’ husband, the Rev. Russell Adams, and other daughter, Anna, 17. Ramps were installed at their home; they have a first-floor bedroom for Vlad.

When Vlad is ready to go home, the director of the orphanage will come to the U.S. to escort him back to Russia.

Craig Svader, a licensed prosthetic professional at Advanced Anatomical Design in Canfield, has donated his service to fit Vlad. Boardman Medical Supply donated the wheelchair Vlad is using here. The mission team also has a secured a donation of the prosthetic legs. The mission team bore the trip and visa cost of $1,600 per person from Russia to the U.S.

Vlad was 12 years old when he lost his legs below the knees. “I was walking through town and it was slippery. I fell down and couldn’t get up in time,” he said, and he was run over by a train. The accident happened Jan. 26, 2003, in a town near Moscow.

“He was fitted with prosthetics in 2005 but he experienced problems with his wounds,” Pokocilova said. “The Russian construction doesn’t suit him,” the doctor said. “These prosthetic legs are of another material and will be more suitable.”

Mrs. Adams explained that in Russia, children with such disabilities usually are abandoned at orphanages because their parents have no means to care for them and provide for special needs. Vlad’s parents did just that.

How Hennessey said she feels about being involved with Vlad is in sharp contrast to the Russian way of thinking.

“I feel blessed to have been involved with this from the beginning,” said the recent YSU graduate. “To be able to help do something so special for someone is a dream come true. ... God had a huge hand in making this possible.”

Now it will be up to Vlad. After being fitted for the prosthetics, he will have physical therapy as he learns to walk on his new legs.

“I’m looking forward to the day when I can walk,” he said.

Mrs. Adams said Vlad will be from 5 feet 8 inches to 6 feet tall once he gets the prostheses.

Though he lost his legs, Vlad never lost interest in sports. “Soccer is my favorite sport,” he said, and his position is goalie. He also likes volleyball and skiing.

Pokocilova added the Vlad plans to participate in the Paralympics for challenged athletes in 2014.

But Vlad is no slouch academically. A junior in high school, he’s already taking college-level courses and studying computer programming. “When I first had a computer, I took it apart and put it back together,” he said.

Pokocilova said Vlad may stay at the orphanage until he is 23. Then the government provides housing and helps in finding employment. The government also gives each orphan a monthly monetary allotment that’s put in savings accounts, the doctor said. When they leave the orphanage, they have between $3,000 and $5,000 to help them get started in life. “The support system is there to help them,” the doctor said.

While Vlad is in America, “he’ll be part of our family,” Mrs. Adams said. There will be Christmas gifts under the tree for Vlad. Among outings planned are a trip to Oglebay, W.Va., to see the holiday light display, going to a SteelHounds hockey game and seeing a Disney on Ice show.