There's a growing pain for people who have had an amputation or a chronic condition that causes muscle loss of function.

It's called phantom pain, and can be anything from a tingling sensation that doesn't go away to extreme pain.

But a new procedure is giving patients hope that this pain will go away.

Veterinarian Betsy Helbing Garza's days are a whirlwind of animal emergencies, surgeries and paperwork.

While she juggles life-or-death situations at work, at home, it's two children that keep her on the move and through it all, she doesn't let her wheelchair slow her down.

"I fell through a hole in a 40-story bridge and broke my back," Garza said.

For the past 15 years, Garza has not been able to walk.

"About two months after my injury, I started having this awful shooting pain in my legs that just felt like I was being electrocuted," Garza said.

Neurosurgeon Scott Falci says paraplegics, quadriplegics and those who suffer an amputation often face phantom pains.

"The nerve cells that receive the information where they can become hyperactive, sending false signals to the brain," Falci said.

Through advanced imaging, Falci can pinpoint where the pain is coming from.

"We've learned precisely where these processing nerves in the spinal cord are firing when they shouldn't be and which parts of the spinal cord they're doing that in," Falci said.

Then the overactive nerves are killed.

"It's done under the operating microscope. Then we place a similar electrode once we've identified them in those precise areas and deliver radio frequency heat," Falci said.

Within a few days, Garza's pain was completely gone.

"I, not only do I have decreased pain, I have zero pain," Garza said.

Falci says the procedure can take up to 12 hours to perform, and 85 percent of his patients find complete relief from the phantom pains.

Right now, Falci believes he is the only doctor doing this procedure.