A "careless sock error" sent an area man to the emergency room early Tuesday morning, authorities say.

Fred Meyer, 49, was leaving for a run at his St. Cloud, Minnesota, home when the incident occurred. According to Meyers' wife, Brenda, Fred was eager to try out a pair of socks he'd just bought.

"They were these very high-tech things, pretty expensive," she told reporters. "And they had these letters on them: An 'R' on one, and an 'L' on the other. I didn't think anything of it at the time."

Neither did her husband.

Mr. Meyer put the socks on, authorities say, and even took a photo, which he shared on his Facebook page, before lacing up his shoes and heading out the door.

(Photo via Facebook)

He didn't get far.

"I was in the kitchen, loading the dishwasher, when I heard shrieking," says Brenda Meyer. "I went running."

"Well, not running running, like Fred runs. I ran to the front door, to see what was wrong. You know what I mean."

What she saw shocked her. Just steps from their front porch, Fred was on the ground, writhing in pain and clawing at his feet.

"It was so hard to watch," Brenda says. "All he kept saying was, 'My feet, my feet!'"

While neighbors called 911, Brenda removed Fred's shoes. That's when she noticed, again, the "R" and the "L" on her husband's socks.

"And then it hit me," she says, describing what she called a "sick" feeling in her stomach. "R and L. Right and left. Fred had put his socks on the wrong feet."

Emergency room doctors confirmed Brenda's suspicion. In a statement to reporters, a hospital spokeswoman said that doctors had concluded Mr. Meyers' injuries were due to "sudden catastrophic foot failure." In layman's terms: Mr. Meyers' right foot simply could not operate in a sock designed for a left foot, and vice versa. Faced with such a physiological disconnect, the statement said, the feet essentially "short circuit" and then shut down.

Experts say Mr. Meyers' case is not an isolated one.

"It's a condition we've seen a lot," says Gordon Lightfoot, M.D., chief of podiatry at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. "This trend toward asymmetrical-fit socks has been keeping us very busy."

What's needed, physicians and consumer watchdog groups say, is clearer labeling and better messaging.

"If manufacturers are going to market socks that only work on the right or left foot," says Dr. Lightfoot, "they have a responsibility to educate their customers in their proper use."

Until then, doctors advise using "Left/Right" socks with caution. Some advise their patients to avoid them altogether.

"Sure," says Dr. Lightfoot, "these socks complement the unique shape of each foot. But at what cost?"

Mark Remy Mark Remy has been with Runner’s World since January 2007—for the first 5 ½ years as executive editor of RunnersWorld.com, and currently as a writer at large.

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