Shafeeq Sheikh, 46, was instead sentenced by a jury to just 10 years’ probation and will have to register as a sex offender after he was found guilty of second-degree sexual assault.
The jury also recommended a suspension of a $10,000 fine.
The judge, by law, had to follow the jury’s recommendation.
The assault occurred at Ben Taub General Hospital in November 2013 where a woman, then 27 years old and named only as Laura, had been hospitalized following an asthma attack.
Related: Houston doctor is convicted, five years after he’s accused of raping a patient as she lay heavily sedated in a hospital bed – Victim was unable to call for help after Dr Shafeeq Sheikh deliberately unplugged the alarm

She told the Houston Chronicle back in 2015 that a doctor, later identified as Sheikh, entered her room in the middle of the night.
He claimed that he needed to examine her lungs but instead set about touching her chest and fondling her breasts.
‘During the first two visits, the male physician entered the room and placed his mouth on her breast and inserted his fingers into her vagina. He also attempted to place his penis in her mouth,’ according to a 2015 lawsuit she filed.
He then returned again to her room and raped her without a condom while she was being treated overnight for shortness of breath and wheezing.

Rape victim, Laura, covers her face, giving testimony in court

Despite pressing a button to call a nurse, she discovered the next morning that the alarm had been disconnected, meaning there was no way for her to summon help.
At the time, Laura told the newspaper that she felt helpless during the ordeal.
‘It’s the feeling that you can’t do anything. You can’t do anything to save yourself,’ she said.
When Laura first reported the assault the morning after the attack, hospital staff didn’t believe her.
A rape kit was performed on Laura and DNA extracted from it matched a swab taken from Sheikh.
Surveillance video and ID card logs were then reviewed, which showed the doctor accessed the woman’s floor 12 times on the night of the attack even though she had not been assigned as his patient.
The assault occurred at Ben Taub General Hospital in November 2013 where a woman, named only as Laura, had been hospitalized following an asthma attack. Sheikh (left and right) admitted to having sex but said it was consensual and that she had been trying to seduce him.
However, it took another two years for the doctor to be arrested and charged from when the sexual assault was first reported in 2013.
Laura, now 32, told the court during the trial how the assault left her life unrecognizable and led to the end of her marriage.
Sheikh, a married father of four, originally from India, lost his position at the Baylor College of Medicine and saw his license revoked by the Texas Medical Board due to a ‘continuing threat to public welfare,’ according to the Houston Chronicle.
Sheikh’s attorney attempted to question Laura’s credibility during the trial by suggesting that she was alert and aware of her surroundings.
Defense attorneys said records showing lengthy text message conversations and phone calls while she was in the hospital were proof that she was more alert than she had claimed.