The Power of Mistakes Atul Gawande is not only our resident surgeon; he is also a patient himself. He is anxious before carrying out an operation, he dwells on his mistakes and he has emotions: he is human and he understands us. However, he does not initially appear to share his concerns with his patients. Gawande goes through a long and tedious development, going from the young medical student to the doctor he is today. This process of identifying with patients is evident in his anthology of essays Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on Imperfect Science. Dr. Gawande seems to emphasize the importance of making mistakes and that these are an essential part of his daily life as a doctor. His mistakes depend on the “good or bad choices” he makes, and it doesn't matter. This internal conflict is the result of mistakes made by a doctor, and the ability to escape from it is considered almost unattainable. For example, in the essay “When Doctors Make Mistakes,” Gawande stands over his patient Louise Williams, looking at her “blue lips, her swollen, bloody throat, and her suddenly closed passage” (73). The imagery of the patient's lifeless body gives a broader meaning to the doctor's daily concerns. Gawande's use of morbid language helps the reader understand that death is unfortunately a facet of a doctor's career. However, Gawande does not let the reader reflect on the emotions that went through him after witnessing the loss of his patient. He writes: “Perhaps an emergency suction device should always be at hand and better light would be more readily available. Perhaps institutions could have trained me better for such crises” (“When Doctors Make Mistakes” 73). Repeating “maybe” only embodies the inability to overcome a mistake. However, this repetitive language also demonstrates the goals a doctor will need to achieve to save a patient's life (73). It is therefore not the doctor, but medicine itself, which can be considered the bridge between life and death, or vice versa. Although the limitations of medicine may allow a patient to die, a doctor will always experience emotional turmoil after losing someone they were trying to treat..