Aliso Viejo--As a limb-builder-in-training, Minh Tran nervously wraps Art Robitaille's left leg - amputated below the knee - with plaster-soaked bandages.

Tran's lift-fold-tuck motion goes on for several minutes as he learns to craft a mold that will serve as a model for a new prosthetic leg for Robitaille, 67, of Thousand Oaks. It's the type of work Tran will spend dozens of hours perfecting while training at Orange County's first school for prosthetic fitters.

Yet, the opportunity almost never happened.

The 20-year-old prosthetics program, based at the California State University, Dominguez Hills, campus, was poised to close this year because of lack of federal funding. Then, Ossur North America of Aliso Viejo, one of the world's largest suppliers of prosthetic parts, made the university an offer it couldn't refuse.

Ossur turned over 5,000 square feet of unused office space and lab equipment to the university, allowing the school to keep the program going another five years. The rent-free deal is valued at $750,000.

"Ossur just stepped up to the plate," said Bryan Malas, chairman of the National Association of Prosthetic and Orthotic Educators.

Ossur's donation came at a critical time for a profession desperately seeking to promote itself. In 2002, about 1,100 prosthetists, those who fit amputees with artificial limbs, were certified in the country. Yet, only eight schools in the country train these little-known health-care practitioners, who serve an estimated 1.5 million amputees.

"We're trying to meet the needs of people with disabilities and you can see how losing Dominguez Hills would have been fairly devastating," said Malas, director of the prosthetics and orthotics program at Northwestern University in Chicago.

Now, as classes are in full swing for the fall, students are learning to appreciate their new south-county digs.

At the CSU campus in Carson, where classes had been held years ago in a dingy basement, students were forced to share tools and workstations for making prosthetic limbs.

At Ossur, classroom space has doubled, while students are assigned their own personal workstation and tools. The spacious site means the university can double its student load, from 16 to 32.

"In one stroke, this program has become the premiere training school in the country," said Scott Hornbeak, coordinator of the Dominguez Hills prosthetic and orthotics program.

As aspiring prosthetists, students such as Tran, 27, of Fullerton need the combined skills of an artist, therapist and physician to craft a custom prosthetic limb for patients. The practitioners must know every aspect of an amputee's life, from how much they weigh to how much they like to walk or run each day - critical factors that help him or her build a comfortable artificial limb.

"The relationship with your prosthetist is so important," said Jami Goldman-Marseilles, whose frostbitten legs were amputated below the knees 15 years ago.

Since losing her legs, the 34-year-old Huntington Beach woman has been fitted dozens of times for a variety of artificial limbs that she uses to run long distances, or for a night out on the town.

"I think it's great that we now have a school here in our own community," she said as student Garrett Hurley practiced making a mold on one of her limbs.

"Anything I can do to help these guys early on in their career is great," she added. Prosthetic limbs can cost $5,000 to $10,000 and are covered by Medicare and insurance, Hornbeak said. While school officials said they are extremely indebted to Ossur, they're cautious about getting too chummy with the company, which took in $81 million in worldwide sales last year of its prosthetic feet, knees and socket systems.

Hornbeak said students will train on prosthetic products from a variety of Ossur's chief competitors, including Otto Bock, based in Germany, Seattle Limb Systems and Ohio Willow Wood.

"They have complete academic independence," Ossur President Gary Wertz said.

Still, the savvy businessman flashes a grin when discussing the possible gains of housing students who will eventually become potential buyers of his products.

"Of course we hope there's a halo effect," Wertz said. "We hope maybe down the way, if they have to choose between two products, they give us the tip because we stepped up here."

PROSTHETISTS
Description: A health-care practitioner who uses prosthetic parts to make an artificial limb for an amputee.
Education: Student with a bachelor's degree can take a six-month certificate training program at California State University, Dominguez Hills, followed by 250 hours of residency.
Number: 1,106 certified in the country (2002)
Salary: $60,000-$100,000
Skills: Needs to be a jack-of-all trades: part craftsman (to build the limb); part therapist (to ease the patient's mind about using a prosthetic piece); and part health-care examiner (to take medical history).
Sources: CSUDH and Bryan Malas of Northwestern University

PROFILE: OSSUR
Business: Sells prosthetic parts
Founded: 1971 in Iceland U.S. headquarters: Ossur North America, 27412 Aliso Viejo Parkway, Aliso Viejo
Employees: 450, worldwide; 106 in Aliso Viejo
Leadership: Gary F. Wertz, president of Ossur North America
Developments: Offers California State University, Dominguez Hills, a five-year, rent-free deal so the school can maintain its prosthetics and orthotics program. Donation is valued at $750,000.
Worldwide net sales: $81.2 million in 2002; $68.3 million in 2001
Source: Ossur North America