Fantastic Voyage Battle Of The Lungs Analysis

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Fantastic Voyage – Battle of the Lung Brittany Carpenter HS130-05 Unit 4 Assignment May 22, 2014 Good morning everyone! This is Brittany Carpenter reporting to you live from inside the body of Laura, a healthy 30 year old female. Today I will be touring the inside of Laura’s body inside a min-sub that has been shrunk to only 8 microns long. While I wait for the green light to go, let me explain where I currently am. Right now I am located in the right femoral vein, which is located in the upper thigh and pelvic region of the body. It is also one of the largest veins in the venous system. The femoral vein’s purpose is to take all the blood in the lower region of the body and deliver it to the heart via the iliac vein. Today’s…show more content…
As we continue to make our way to the heart, we merge with the right external iliac vein. This is also another name for the femoral vein, and is also considered a deep vein in the lower leg. Its main responsibility is taking deoxygenated blood from the legs back to the heart. It is located right behind the inguinal ligament in the lower abdomen. The inguinal ligament support the area between the abdomen and the thigh (Inguinal Ligament, n.d.). It is like a giant rubber band that prevents the intestines from distending into the groin. Continuing north, we can see that we are going to merge into a larger vein, the inferior vena cava. As you can see, I am not the only one making my way through here. Blood from the left side of the body is also making its way to the lower lobe of the lung from this route. The inferior vena cava is the largest vein in the body. This vein will dump us into the right atrium of the heart. Look! I can already see the heart. Can you believe this fist-sized organ is what keeps our body…show more content…
Let’s get out of here! Let’s cross the alveolar membrane and make our way to Laura’s nose. Remember the bronchioles and bronchi? Well we are now traveling through them to get to the trachea, also known as the windpipe. The trachea is about 4 inches long, so we are almost out. I see our next respiratory structure up ahead. Let’s see if anyone can guess what it is. This structure is also known as the voice box and holds the vocal cords. If you guessed the larynx, you would be correct. Not only is the larynx responsible for producing our voice, it also helps us swallow and breathe (Larynx, n.d.). Passing through the larynx, we enter the pharynx. Pharynx is just the medical term for the throat. Who knew that the pharynx is part of the respiratory and the digestive system? That’s right! The part of the trachea we are using to exit from is called the nasal pharynx. The flap of tissue we can all see ahead of me is called the epiglottis. This piece of tissue either flaps over the trachea or the esophagus, depending upon if we are eating, drinking, or breathing. Laura is breathing, so the flap is covering the esophagus, allowing us to pass

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