There's a serious trap in this question, can you spot it?
The problem is in the hidden assumptions behind the words "mistake" and "design". A "mistake" only makes sense if there's a purpose, while "design" implies a designer.
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Given the stupendous, wondrous subtlety of the human body, it's hard to let go of the notion that we are designed in some way.
However evolution is a process without a goal other than to select the most successful organisms at a given moment.
Evolution only ever looks backwards. It never looks forwards and is not planned.
The flaws in the human body can probably be entirely attributed to inherited baggage. A characteristic that was an advantage might not work so well when circumstances change.
Joan Skakel (of the Kennedy clan) encountered this when she choked to death on a piece of meat in 1967.
The problem is that food and air enter the body via the same channel, and the only thing that saves us is a flap of skin. The epiglottis acts as a valve stopping food from entering the lungs, but sometimes it closes too late.
This looks like an evolutionary afterthought or, as a computer programmer would say, a "kludge".
Whales and dolphins avoid this problem by breathing through blowholes on the top of the head.
A more lethal flaw has - and does - account for a vast number of deaths, and one every mother must contend with.
Our journey down the birth canal is one of the most hazardous we will ever undertake, and happens because human heads are oversized and do not fit easily through the confined space of a woman's pelvis.
An example often cited is the appendix which, since human diet has changed, appears to be superfluous. Anybody who's suffered appendicitis will know it can be life threatening.
However that turns out to be not so simple after it was discovered that your appendix helps preserve the integrity of gut flora that are part in your immune system.
These are just a few of many examples. Each relate to the body, but perhaps the most serious flaw is in the mind. Humans evolved to live in small communities where the number of regular contacts might be a hundred or so.
Often, membership of the tribe with shared attitudes and beliefs is crucial, even when the group is wrong.
This comes into direct conflict with science when evidence disagrees and conformity with the group matters more than overwhelming evidence.
That may have been a good strategy in the distant past, but now human presence on the planet has grown exponentially and the problems are vastly larger.
Unfortunately our planet is not interested in what people think and it's unclear whether humans will adapt or become a failed natural experiment.
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