Normal Heart - Exterior & InteriorNancy McDaniel M.D.A normal heart has four chambers and four valves. The blue blood or blood with low oxygen returns to the right collecting chamber (right atrium). It passes through a valve (tricuspid valve) into the right collecting chamber (right ventricle). The right pumping chamber pumps the blood through the lung artery valve (pulmonary valve) into the lung artery (pulmonary). As the blood goes through the lung arteries it picks up oxygen and becomes red blood. The red blood returns to the left collecting chamber of the heart (left atrium) through the lung veins (pulmonary veins). From the left collecting chamber the blood crosses a valve (mitral valve) into the left pumping chamber (left ventricle). The left ventricle pumps the blood across the aortic valve into the main artery (aorta). In a normal heart the red blood and blue blood do not mix, there are no holes, and the valves are not narrowed. Congenital Heart Disease happens in less than one percent of all babies. Some heart disease is mild and some is severe. Most can have some sort of therapy, either medical or surgical.
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