On Thursday, surgeons at St. John's Hospital worked to give little Matthew Hodgson and his family another new beginning.

While little Matthew seemed picture perfect when he was born, mom and dad noticed a problem.

"He had a little bump on the back of his head," said Kerry Hodgson, Matthew’s dad. “We just knew his head wasn't right. We didn't know what problems he could have from it."

Within a couple of weeks, doctors confirmed Matthew was born with something called craniosynostosis.

"The skull grows long and narrow,” said Dr. Sami Khoshyomn, a pediatric neurosurgeon.

Matthew's skull was growing in the shape of a football. His "soft-spot," the area that is normally open in the skull, was fused over with bone so, as his brain grew, it forced his skull to grow abnormally.

"As children get older, deformity progresses worse and worse and worse,” said Khoshyomn.

It's a condition these surgeons had referred to major medical centers, miles away from Springfield. That’s not necessary anymore.

"It's wonderful for us to have it done here,” said Matthew’s mom. At St. John's, a team of 20-30 people tended to this little guy on Thursday, customizing everything to him, from the warmer temperature in the room to monitoring every drop of fluid in his body. Two pediatric surgeons led the team. "Dr. Sami removes abnormal strip of skull and protects the brain. My job is to remodel and reshape the skull so that we correct the condition and allow for bone growth in future,” said Dr. Bharat Shah, a plastic/reconstructive surgon. Once the fused bone is removed, doctors tailored the absorbable strips that will hold the skull in place until it grows together normally. The strips are attached to the skull with screws that are more like melting rivets. "We use a little ultrasonic wand that basically drives the screw in without any twisting or turning, so there's no stress on the skull,” said Shah. Within nine months, the body will have absorbed those strips and the little screws, replacing them with bone for a normally shaped skull. The operation takes two hours of meticulous work but doctors say the payoff lasts a lifetime. “This is one field where satisfaction is 100 percent. It’s just very rewarding," said Kerry Hodgson. Matthew will be in the hospital for about five days. He will wear a helmet for three to six months to protect the soft spot that he has now. In nine months, his skull will have grown new bone. Within three years, doctors say, it will be hard to tell Matthew ever had a problem.