Denise,
I have not seen your mom with shooting breast pain, but it sounds like thrush
to me.  Slightly pink nipples can be a tip-off, was there any shininess on the
areola?  When yeast overgrows in the ducts, there will be hot, stabbing,
shooting pains radiating from the nipples back toward the chest wall.  This
pain is most common in between feedings, with nipple soreness during feeds.
Some moms get duct pain during the MER, as the ducts stretch from milk
filling.  If it is a yeast, giving antibiotics will make it worse.  Keep in
contact with the mom.
        As for nerve damage caused by infant suckling, I've never seen it,
though in this field anything is possible.  I specialize in suck dysfunctions,
and have seen some moms with incredible craters, and have seen many babies who
pull the nipple, but have never had the shooting pains associated with this.
One of the neat things about being an LC is that most cases are
multifactorial, you get to tease out all the individual strands and make sense
of the puzzle.  This is why two LC's can look at one dyad and make different
dx or plans, each weighs the various factors differently, and we are all
"clued into" different things as well, according to our training, experience,
and viewpoints.
Let us know how this mom does.
Catherine Watson Genna, IBCLC