Dr. Shelokov passes away

I am just beyond saddened by this news.

I received an email today from another patient of his, and she told me that he had passed away and then sent me a news article that reported the tragic news. Dr. Shelokov was my surgeon and he totally transformed my life and many others as well. He was a caring man, witty, and made you feel as if you were his only patient. I think about all the people he could have helped and it just makes me so sad, because he truly was one of the best out there. I think of all the people he has helped and what an impact he has made on their lives. Including mine.

He died of a heart attack. He was only 55. He leaves behind a wife and two young children.

I was originally supposed to have my surgery in September of this year. Next month. But I was in such bad shape that we moved the surgery up to January, and I thank God that Dr. S was the man with the hands that corrected my horrible curves. I think about Dr. Shelokov everyday, and now he will forever remain in my heart, as the man who took great care of me and gave me my life back.

I pray for his wife, children and family, his wonderful co-workers (Eric and Shaun) and for all the patients who were blessed enough to call him their doctor. I feel like I just lost a real close friend.

Dr. Shelokov will truly be missed.



MAN ON THE MOUNTAIN
Mountain biker dies of heart attack


By REILLY CAPPS
Writer
Published: Wednesday, August 5, 2009 5:19 AM CDT

A doctor who worked to set crooked spines straight died of an apparent heart attack while riding his mountain bike on Prospect Trail Monday afternoon.

Alexis Shelokov, 55, lived in Plano, Texas, most of the year, but had a house in Bachman Village. He was an orthopedic surgeon and the medical director of the Baylor Scoliosis Center in Plano.

Shelokov leaves behind his wife, Georgiana, who is a radiologist, and two children: a boy aged 13 and a girl aged 11, reported San Miguel County coroner Bob Dempsey.

Shelokov had already been to Telluride three times this summer, said his friend Ed Roufa, mostly to mountain bike, which he loved.

“It was a horrible accident,” said Roufa, “but he was doing what he loved to do.”

Ed Roufa was with Shelokov when he died. They had ridden the Prospect Trail almost to the bottom, and Shelokov was ecstatic.

“I can’t tell you the exclamations we were using as we were doing the downhill,” Roufa said. Then Shelokov suffered his attack.

EMTs arrived within minutes, Roufa said, but were unable to revive Shelokov.

Valley Lawn Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.

This is the third death on a bike in the area in less than a month. A visitor from Washington state died after a solo crash on Telluride Trail July 12, and local “Captain” Jack Carey died July 17 while road biking on Lizard Head Pass.

Shelokov grew up in Glenwood Springs, Roufa said, an avid skier and ice climber. He got his medical degree from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in 1982. He had owned a home in Telluride for at least 12 years, Roufa said.

Shelokov straightened out the spines of adults and children with scoliosis, the malady of a crooked, S-shaped spinal column, and he received some raves from former patients on scoliosis.org and vitals.com, where doctors are rated.

“I love him,” wrote one woman.

Wrote another patient: “I have never met anyone so attentive, caring, compassionate and very professional and honest at the same time.”

In an interview on Ivanhoe.com, Shelokov talked about how patients with scoliosis would confide to him that they felt different, they felt deformed.

“There are times that I describe my practice as one of being a psychiatrist with a knife,” Shelokov said. “It’s an odd way to put it, but any time you’re doing a procedure that changes the way a person looks physically and the way they feel physically, you can’t do that effectively without dealing with the patient emotionally, dealing with them as a person rather than just a collection of bones.”

He said he was working to correct the misperception that there’s nothing to be done for adults with scoliosis. He told them: “You can be made straight.” A man who loved to ride his bike, Shelokov even helped a woman get on one. An online story from Baylor tells about a woman whose scoliosis got progressively worse as she grew older. Then, at age 31, she met with Shelokov, who told her there was help. After surgeons at Baylor fused five vertebrae in her lower back, she went out and bought a mountain bike. “And now that I’ve tried it,” she said, “I’ve fallen in love with the sport.”

It seems fitting that Shelokov would find a way to help other people get into the sport he loved.