Question

Tell the following as a story in your own words listing each vessel as you would a list of roads you would drive on to get to the beach and back from campus.  

Trace a red blood cell from the left ventricle to the occipital lobe of the brain and back to the left ventricle.

Answer 1

The red blood cell travels through the aortic valve from the left ventricle into the aorta, where it is pumped to the arteries and capillaries of the brain's occipital lobe. When it delivers oxygen to the cells of this location, the red blood cell travels back down to the heart, through veins leading into the superior vena cava. This vein guides blood into the right atrium, then into the right ventricle via the tricuspid valve.

To receive oxygen, the blood cell is then pumped through the pulmonary valve from the right ventricle and up into the pulmonary artery. Such arteries bring the red blood cells within the lungs to capillaries where they can obtain oxygen. After that, the oxygenated red blood cell travels through the pulmonary vein back out of the lungs and into the left ventricle.