Despite those custom shoes, Wadlow’s feet were his eventual undoing. He could barely feel them, so when blisters formed he didn’t notice. One blister became infected during a visit to Manistee, Michigan, in 1940. Unable to fit into a bed at the local hospital, Wadlow was ordered to stay in bed at his hotel. But his fever rose and he became sicker, needing transfusions and surgery and eventually dying in his sleep.