A former doctor from Colorado, USA, has been sentenced to spend 30 days in jail for choking a nurse that tried to stop him from turning off a patient’s vital signs machine.

The nurse said that the doctor said the machines were too loud.

58-year-old Mark Randle Ryan admitted assaulting Beth Duche, a 51-year-old nurse in front of colleagues and patients.

The incident happened at a Lone Tree medical center in October 2018.

However, the doctor continuously claimed that he passed out when the incident happened.

During his sentencing hearing on Monday, he said:

All I could tell was that my hands were around, feel your jaw, feel throat, soft tissues — I did not know what was going on. I remember separating hands away from the throat.

Lisa Moses, his attorney, tried to get him out of jail time, saying that he was equally shocked by his attack.

However, the nurse, Beth Duche, wanted Ryan to get the maximum sentence of 9- days.

Beth told Douglas County District Judge Theresa Slade:

I was assaulted by a man who took an oath to do no harm. I feel he might have killed me if no one else would have been around.

Ryan, the doctor, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault by strangulation, a felony, and a third-degree assault.

He was sentenced to spend 30 days in a county jail.

He will start his sentencing on June 25, 2020.

Not only that, Douglas County District Judge Theresa Slade also sentenced him to get 3 years of deferred judgment and probation, anger management classes, mental health treatment, and 100 hours of community service.