 Osborn received a letter from eminent cardiac surgeon Alfred Blalock asking for some revisions on his paper, but by this time Osborn was lying in a tent in the Philippines during a downpour, so he could not complete work on the paper.After two years with the U.S. Army, he completed a residency at New York University School of Medicine, where he developed an interest in understanding blood oxygenation.In 1954, Osborn moved westward to work at Stanford University Medical School; one source described him as "[s]eeking refuge from the blueblood New York aristocracy into which he was born."