If you’ve ever had to dress to impress, you know the restrictive pinch of wearing dress shoes that are too tight. For many of us, the pain ends when we slip into the spare flats we brought or kick off our heels once we get home. But for one man, his dress shoes were so tight and so uncomfortable, doctors had to amputate his toes.
What makes his story even worse is that it all could have been prevented if someone had simply listened to him when he expressed that something wasn’t right with his shoes.
Martin Ralph had ordered custom shoes for his wedding.
Martin Ralph, 61, normally wears orthotic boots, the New York Post reports. But he wanted to dress well for his wedding and had the local hospital fit him for a pair of orthotic dress shoes. He ordered the shoes from the hospital and they had them made in time for the wedding on July 27, 2019. From the moment he tried the custom shoes on, he knew something was wrong. Someone had measured them incorrectly.
Ralph complained about the shoes three times.
“I told them at the time of the fitting that they were too small,” Ralph said. Three times I went back but I was told by the lady who did the measurements I just had to wear them in.” But the discomfort never went away.
On the day of his wedding, Ralph was in immense pain. “Halfway through the wedding day, one foot was getting particularly sore. I had to change into my boots.” But the pain from the shoes didn’t just last that day.
Wedding Shoes That Were 'Too Small' Leads to Amputation of Multiple Toes: 'Like a Butcher Had Been in There' https://t.co/kt5catOVJZ
— People (@people) June 9, 2025
Ralph discovered a blister on his foot.
“When I took my sock off, my toe was three times the size it should have been,” he explained. Later, Ralph noticed that there was a blister on his foot. It gradually got worse. Ralph lives with diabetes, a disease known to affect the circulatory system, notes Medical News Today. Wearing the wrong size shoes for hours on end can restrict blood flow and make it difficult for a sore or wound to heal properly.
Sadly, that’s exactly what happened to Ralph. The sore didn’t heal and he developed an infection that wouldn’t respond to antibiotics.
The amputation wasn’t the end of the nightmare.
When he went to the doctor for them to clean out the dead tissue around the wound, they realized they would have to amputate. “It was too far gone,” Ralph recalls. “… you could see the bone.”
“It was like a butcher had been there, I was in shock,” he said. “Having to undergo amputation of my toe was horrific, but I was hopeful that was the end of it. Sadly not.”
Ralph struggles since the amputation.
Since then, Ralph lost more toes. Now, he has none left on that foot. He requires assistance to walk and he is no longer able to work. The Trust, the company responsible for making and fitting the shoes, took full responsibility in failing to get Ralph the right shoe size. The company said given his diabetes, the hospital should have offered an emergency appointment to ensure his shoes fit comfortably.
Alexandra Highfield, a specialist medical negligence lawyer said, “This is an example of where a simple mistake can have devastating consequences.”
Ralph admitted that now, he struggles both physically and psychologically.
“To see the state of my foot now is terribly upsetting, especially when it could have been prevented so easily,” he said. “There are so many things I struggle with now. Even just moving around is difficult. I struggle to do anything. I know nothing will bring my toes back or fix my foot, but I hope that by speaking out I can help ensure it doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
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