QUINCY, Mass. -- A Stoughton man accused of hitting a Milton firefighter while driving drunk was arraigned in Quincy District Court on Monday.

NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that firefighter Antonio Pickens, 44, was in a coma with massive injuries to his head and body on Monday, and doctors were trying to reattach a severed arm. His injuries are considered life-threatening.

Pickens, a father of two and a 12-year veteran of the fire department, was helping people involved in a car crash near the fire station on Blue Hill Avenue in Milton on Saturday night. Pickens was struck and thrown over a Buick driven by C.W. Tolbert, 46, of Stoughton, police said.

"I am totally, totally sorry for the family and our family and everything. It never happened before," Tolbert's mother, Viola, said.

Tolbert was arrested at the scene. Police said Tolbert has been arrested twice on accusations of drunken driving.

"To have a three-time drunk driver do this to somebody -- it could have been any one of the firefighters that work here. Any one of them would have done the same thing," Milton Fire Chief Malcolm Larson said.

Fellow firefighters are keeping a 24-hour vigil at the hospital with Pickens' family. Milton Fire Lt. Jack Grant said he did not think Pickens would ever be able to be a firefighter again.

"I think we are too busy being concerned to be angry or anything like that. I know that is the case for me personally. I get the sense that it's like that for his family, too," Grant said.

Tolbert was ordered held on $7,500 cash bail.