Valentina V. Vrtikapa M.D.

Valentina V. Vrtikapa, M.D., 49, of Quincy, died peacefully at her home surrounded by her loving family at 6:10 a.m. Tuesday, March 7, 2017. She succumbed following a courageous five-year fight against colorectal cancer.

Dr. Vrtikapa was born June 26, 1967, at Ljubinje in the then Yugoslavian state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the daughter of Slobodan and Marija Baros Vujovic. She married Bozo "Bob" Vrtikapa on Jan. 23, 1993.

She received her baccalaureate and medical degrees at the University of Sarajevo in 1992. On the day before her graduation, her medical school came under military fire as the Bosnian Civil War escalated, and she was pressed into immediate service as a primary care and emergency physician. Several years later her family was awarded refugee status by the Canadian government and resettled in Winnipeg, Manitoba. For the next four years she worked as a nurses' aide in a nursing home while spending her off hours learning English and intensely preparing for qualifying examinations required to enter a medical residency program in the U.S. In 2000 she was accepted into the residency in Adult and General Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine/Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn, N.Y. At the end of her third year of training she completed a mini-fellowship in post-traumatic stress disorder at the Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, N.C. Following completion of her general residency in 2004, she completed a fellowship in geriatric psychiatry at New York University. She was board certified in both adult and general and geriatric psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. In 2005 she joined the staff of the Blessing Hospital Behavioral Medicine Center as the Quincy region's first board certified geriatric psychiatrist. At the time of her passing she was medical director of the Blessing Hospital Department of Psychiatry and enjoyed an extensive inpatient and outpatient practice. She was frequently consulted nationally on issues related to geriatrics and post-traumatic stress disorder. Her colleagues universally admired her and held her in high esteem.

Besides her husband, she is survived by her mother, Marija, and mother-in-law, Zora Vrtikapa, of Ljubinja, Bosnia and Herzegovina; a son, Dejan, of St. Louis; a daughter, Katarina, at home; and a brother, Sinesia Vujovic of Novi Sad, Serbia. She also is survived by a number of nieces, nephews and in-laws in her native country. She was preceded in death by her father, Slobodan Vujovic, and father-in-law, Dusan Vrtikapa.

SERVICES: No local services are planned at this time. A Serbian Orthodox funeral service and burial will be next week in Bosnia and Herzegovinia.

VISITATION: 5 to 9 p.m., with a wake service at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 9, 2017, at Sveta Gora Orthodox Funeral Home, 3517 N. Pulaski Road, Chicago.

MEMORIALS: In lieu of flowers, to Blessing Foundation for cancer care programs.

WEBSITE: svetagora.com

Condolences may be expressed online at whig.com.