Last month, after more than 60 years, the singer finally met the doctor who saved him, reports CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason. "I didn't even know I had the operation until some kid, I was about nine or 10, said 'what's that big scar on the back of your neck?' and I went home and asked my parents," said Mellencamp. "They said, 'oh, don't worry about it. You had an operation."

Last month, Mellencamp met Dr. Robert Heimburger, now 97, the neurosurgeon who performed the life-saving operation in 1951. "He remembered it 'cause it was the first one they'd ever done," Mellencamp said.

In 1951, the singer was one of three babies at Riley with spina bifida. "They did three operations," he recalled. "One died on the table. Another girl lived, I think, 'til she was 14, and then she died. And then me." Dr. Heimburger's highly risky procedure took 18 hours.