ANOTHER FDNY SOCIAL MEDIA SCANDAL AS EMERGENCY RESPONDER IS SUSPENDED BY THE DEPARTMENT

FDNY Fire Commisioner Salvatore Cassano

In a mushrooming scandal, another FDNY emergency responder has been suspended by the department for tasteless activity on social-media Web sites, officials revealed yesterday.
Spurred by the latest in a series of Post exposés on EMT misbehavior, Anthony Palmigiano was suspended without pay pending an investigation into his online activity, according to FDNY spokesman Frank Gribbon.
A man identifying himself as Palmigiano posted to Facebook a graphic image of a patient with a gaping neck wound, along with a caption reading, “Table saw injury.”
Palmigiano claimed Saturday that his account had been hacked.
He is the second EMT to be suspended by the department since The Post exposed several emergency responders who splashed patient images on the Internet. Brooklyn EMT Mike Vale was also suspended for 30 days after he allegedly posted images of patients who were in his ambulance.
The discipline comes one week following the suspension of EMT Timothy Dluhos after The Post revealed his sexist and racist tweets.
And a week before that, FDNY Commissioner Sal Cassano’s EMT son, Joseph, lost his job when The Post exposed his racist tweets.
An obese Brooklyn woman mocked by Dluhos in one of his posts said she feels betrayed.
“It was very upsetting,” said Teena Gamzon, 65, a picture of whom Dluhos uploaded — with the words “Wide Load” Photoshopped on the back of her wheelchair.
The bedridden mom said she was stunned to see an image of the cruel tweet on the front page of the newspaper.
“It was horrible,” she said. “I’m even embarrassed in front of my granddaughter. She’s 10 years old. She has to see her grandmother humiliated like that.”
The picture, taken from the back, was likely taken two years ago while she convalesced at a Staten Island rehab center, she said.
Gamzon suffers from acute diabetes and severe ulceration of the legs, in addition to her weight problem, and is a virtual prisoner in her own home.
She has been marooned in her bedroom for the past four years and relies on EMT workers like Dluhos to transport her for critical hospital visits
Gamzon’s family said their lives are already difficult enough without having to deal with abuse from the first responders they rely on.
Posted under the hashtag #fatladytweets, Dluhos’ post suggests that Gamzon’s husband was responsible for the nasty language.
“Look what my husband did to my wheels couch!!!!!” the tweet states. “That Bastard!”
In reality, Gamzon’s devoted husband, Lester, has dedicated his life to caring for his wife of nearly 50 years.
“This is the worst thing this guy could have done to my mother,” said Gamzon’s seething daughter, Lisa Khalifa. “My mom has suffered a lot. She was always very self-conscious about her weight. For him to send this picture out with that message is just disgusting.”
Gamzon called the tweet the work of a depraved mind. ‘He’s definitely a sicko,” she fumed. “How could anyone who does this not be sick? Would they do this to someone who has cancer?”
Both the NYPD and FDNY are reviewing their social-media policies and have asked members to clean up their personal pages.
“I saw him crying on the front page of The Post,” Khalifa said of Dluhos. “I hope he cries all the way to the employment line for treating my mom like this. She doesn’t deserve it.”