''And now I say I can feel I've stepped on the cat before it squeals,''he laughs.''Because I can feel things through my foot.''
It's just one little miracle among many since the retired public servant from Dunlop last year became the 47th patient in Australia to undergo a procedure known as osseointegration.
The operation was carried out by Sydney orthopaedic surgeon Munjed Al Muderis,who has his own remarkable story to tell as a former Iraqi refugee who arrived by boat at Christmas Island from Indonesia in 1999.
Dr Al Muderis,who spent a year working at the Canberra Hospital,has been in the news recently for performing the surgery on a British soldier who lost both his legs in a bomb blast in Afghanistan.
Asked if he felt Dr Al Muderis was a miracle-worker,Mr Hilton replied:''Obviously he is. He really cares about his amputee patients.''
But the operation does come at a cost. Mr Hilton's procedure totalled about $200,000,with the amount covered by federal workplace insurer Comcare because he was travelling home from work in Melbourne in 1982 when he had an accident on his motorbike and had his left leg amputated.