Autistic man's care renews shocking debate

The Bernsteins are fighting a Cook County judge’s March 2 ruling that said Bradley’s shock treatment violates an amendment to state law passed last May.

“Now we’re not going to be able to control him and we don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Mrs. Bernstein, of suburban Lincolnshire, Ill.

A therapist recommended the shocks when Bradley was a boy and he got the treatment routinely in group homes where he lived until the state law was enacted last year, his mother said.

Specialists at Trinity Services Inc., which took over the agency that used to care for Bradley, oppose shock treatment and helped change the law so it and other painful techniques are banned from group homes.

“This is something that our professional staff doesn’t believe is ethical,” said Trinity’s president, Art Dykstra.

Bradley Bernstein is the only group home patient in Illinois known to have received shock treatment in recent years. His parents agreed to a compromise to gradually stop the treatment, but sued when Trinity officials abruptly stopped it after the law changed, according to the their attorney, Robert O’Donnell.

The judge’s recent ruling said the change in Illinois law makes the Bernsteins’ complaint moot. O’Donnell is appealing and has enlisted Matthew Israel to help evaluate Bradley and determine whether his shock treatment should resume.

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“Anything that causes pain isn’t necessarily cruel and inhumane,” Israel said. “If you go to a dentist or a surgeon, you’re going to be involved in temporary pain but have long-term hope of improvement.”

Trinity officials dispute the Bernsteins’ claim that their son’s behavior has grown worse without the shocks.

Bradley looked away and did not respond to questions during an attempt to interview him this week at his group home in suburban Des Plaines. Wearing a maroon sweat shirt and khaki pants, the gray-haired man wasn’t violent during the half-hour visit and had no visible bruises.

His mother said he started “beating himself up” during a recent visit home, however, and that his eye doctor worries he’ll do permanent damage.

“The judge and the legislature are taking my son’s life away,” Mrs. Bernstein said. “If he doesn’t stop hitting his head he’s going to go blind.”

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