On a Sunday night in 1996, when Joshua Aiken was a happy 22-year-old recent college graduate on his way home from his summer job, a man in a stolen Lincoln Town Car fleeing from police at 100 mph slammed into his car on Verona Road in Penn Hills.

The driver later died, and Mr. Aiken almost did, too.

He suffered 36 broken bones and would never walk again without help.

But Mr. Aiken, a former Division I basketball player, fought to regain the use of his shattered body, enduring 28 operations and years of rehabilitation to recover 20 percent of his ability to walk.

He used metal canes for short strolls and a wheelchair the rest of the time.

The ordeal didn't stop him.

He worked as a researcher, a nurse and finally as a nursing supervisor at Harmar Village in Cheswick; coached basketball and played wheelchair ball with the Pittsburgh Steel Wheelers; and recently was studying for his master's degree in counseling at the University of Pittsburgh so he could help others facing similar adversity.

But for all his pluck, Mr. Aiken couldn't beat the diabetes that had plagued him since his diagnosis at age 15.

He died Wednesday at his home in Springdale after lapsing into a coma from insulin shock. He was 34.

Friends and family described Mr. Aiken as relentlessly positive in the face of hardships dealt him.

"He never questioned why the accident happened," said his best friend, John Joyce, 34, of Plum, a grade school teacher in the Penn Hills School District who had known Mr. Aiken since the seventh grade. "He could just light up a room with his good attitude."

The two had coached the junior varsity basketball team at Greater Works Academy in Monroeville, which both had attended.

"He always used the accident to talk to the kids. He saw the positive side of things," said Mr. Joyce. "He inspired me -- don't take for granted what you have."

His former Bible class teacher at Greater Works, Rick Nugara, said Mr. Aiken's athletic ability complemented his upbeat nature.

"The odds were stacked against him," he said. "Being a diabetic complicated things. But he was a fighter. That's just the way he was. I never saw any quit in him."

Mr. Aiken was the fifth of six rambunctious brothers who grew up in a big house in Oakmont.

Like all the boys, he attended Christian schools -- their father, James A. Aiken, is pastor of the Shady Avenue Christian Assembly in Shadyside -- and graduated from Greater Works, where he was a star athlete and honor student.

All the boys are similarly successful. James, 41, is captain of a Navy destroyer; Todd, 39, of Cranberry, is headmaster of Eden Christian Academy; Sean, 37, of Ross, is principal of Quaker Valley Middle School; Matthew, 35, of Indiana, Pa., works in sales for Irwin Builders Supply; and Peter, 31, is a high school principal in Lancaster County.

Mr. Aiken chose health care; he had been interested in nursing ever since his diabetes diagnosis. After earning his degree at Liberty University in Virginia, he was studying for his nursing school exams in the summer and fall of 1996 while working at Green Oaks Country Club when the crash happened.

In the aftermath of that accident, Mr. Aiken had to be resuscitated three times.

His mother, Kathryn Aiken, 63, said her son never let the accident beat him and went on to live a productive life, first as a researcher at Pitt and later as a nurse.

He had gotten married three years ago. Although he and his wife, Erin, had split, they were trying to reconcile and had talked of having children.

"He always believed that everything would get better," Mrs. Aiken said. "Josh was real laid-back, but he was determined. We cried many tears together."

Visitation will be from 2 to 4 and 6 to 9 p.m. today at Burket-Truby Funeral Home in Oakmont. A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow in Shady Avenue Christian Assembly, 241 Shady Ave.