(John Beahan/Olga Grigoryants, Neon Tommy)

John Beahan spent decades attempting to solve some of the world’s most difficult engineering problems. 

He wrote software for NASA to operate robots in outer space. He developed new computers using microchips that could endure extreme radiation. He created spacecraft computers that could fix themselves millions of miles away from the Earth.

But Beahan’s most pressing problem is controlling his own body. 

A car accident in the San Gabriel Mountains nearly 24 years ago left the software architect at the Jet Propulsion Lab paralyzed. Everyday tasks like combing his hair, picking up a quarter or putting on clothes became obstacles.

“Life suddenly became much more involved, challenging and complex,” said Beahan, 51, as he recently pushed his wheelchair across the Caltech campus near JPL in Pasadena. “It’s like a boot camp. You don’t feel good and everything is hard. Getting up in the morning is like preparing for a huge event.”  

Still, Beahan said he never felt discouraged. With years of experience writing software to control robots, he began to treat his physical condition as a scientific puzzle. 

“Something doesn’t work, then fix it,” Beahan said. “Doesn’t matter what doesn’t work.” 

Beahan was born in the small town of Elmira, N.Y. His father abandoned his mother before Beahan was born. 

During his childhood, Beahan’s mother became disabled with multiple sclerosis and was bedridden. His two half siblings, almost 20 years his senior, married and moved out of the house by the time Beahan was three.

But both his siblings remembered Beahan as a gifted, early reader who “learned like a sponge.”

In high school, he started writing code on the school’s Apple II Plus computer. At 16, he designed electronic circuits out of chips from the Army Navy store. Two years later, he moved to California to study robotics at Caltech.

The accident that changed his life occurred on a sunny fall afternoon in 1989 when he was on his way home from a day of hiking in the mountains. He was driving alone on the winding Angeles Crest Highway when his car failed to negotiate a corner.  

Beahan sat behind the wheel of his Datsun F-10 as it rushed off a cliff, tumbling in a free fall, the seat belt squeezing his chest. He estimated that his speed was nearing 100 mph. 

Freefalling, Beahan thought he would have no chance at survival if the car fell for two more seconds. He counted to four before the car hit the ground.

“It’s over,” he said to himself a moment before the impact. He instantly lost consciousness. 

A few seconds later, a stranger who saw the accident rushed down the hill to provide first aid. He saw that Beahan’s neck was broken, but also saw that he had to straighten Beahan’s head, so he could breathe.   

“No way,” Beahan said when he opened his eyes and looked at the stranger. 

When Beahan arrived at the hospital, his neck was broken like a “mashed potato,” his older brother, David Johnston, recalled. His upper body was bruised and his face was severely swollen. 

“You look like shit,” said Johnston, when he saw him in the hospital. 

“I know,” Beahan replied. “But I’m alive.”  

After eleven months in recovery, Beahan returned to work at JPL. His hands and legs were paralyzed, and he had no muscle movement under his shoulders. 

“Many people who get paralyzed whose work involved a physical activity need to stop and retrain,” Beahan said. “For me since all I needed to do was to talk, think and type - I went to do the same job.”

He managed to type with two fingers, and hold a phone, but needed special devices to empty his bladder. 

Slowly, Beahan started inventing techniques and devices to help him adjust to his condition. 

He modified a tenodesis hand device widely used by quadriplegics with paralyzed hands that allows them to form a grip with a wrist movement to hold a glass or use a pen. Beahan’s alteration enabled him to put it on and take it off without help.  

He redesigned a wheelchair seat cushion by removing material and perforating it with two holes. The change evenly spread the pressure of his body weight, and allowed him to sit all day without getting bedsores.

He came up with a Foley catheter technique that reduced infections.

He adapted special boots to reduce pressure on his calves and the back of his ankles by using foam rubber and cutouts in the hard plastic. The modifications allowed him to wear boots 24 hours a day without causing pressure sores on his feet. 

Before the accident, Beahan was an avid outdoorsman who practiced scuba diving, enjoyed cross-country skiing and performed frequent rock climbing. 

Some of the hook-like gadgets he has invented were inspired by a rappelling technique he once used to conquer Californian mountain peaks like Dragon Pass, Big Rock or a 21-story library building at Caltech.

“When I got paralyzed, I didn’t feel like I had a tragedy.” Beahan said. “It was a big change and actually an interesting change.”   

Before the accident, Beahan said he was the type of person who sat in the back of the room avoiding interaction with colleagues. But being paralyzed maed him reexamine how he lived his life, making him much more outgoing, among other changes.  He also had to learn how to seek help from other people.

“Suddenly, I wanted as many resources as I could get,” Beahan said. “I wanted to know every possible piece of information I could use to live my life.” 

Becoming more outgoing, he said, helped him advance in his career. He wasn’t afraid to give a speech in front of an audience or lead a project with a large team. 

At JPL, he quickly rose from being programmer to a leading system engineer. He created all the software for the first multi-chip module computer flown in space. The computer was installed in an Earth-orbiting imaging satellite.  

His team developed a massive super computer with thousands of processors that calculated equations in a fraction of a second. Beahan created software that monitored space computers, detecting errors and reacting to them without any involvement from the Earth. 

Johnston said his brother had always focused on what he could change rather than dwelling on what he could not. Once presented with a problem, Beahan starts inventing solutions--so far he has produced several inventions that could improve the lives of thousands of other quadriplegics.

After the accident, Beahan chose decided on a pink wheelchair to stand out.

“If someone asked me to do a list of the most terrible things that happened to me and the list of most important things - it would be the same list,” Beahan said. “Your best thing is your worst thing. It shapes who you are.”