Carla Rivera, standing next to her attorney Susan Moran and a deputy sheriff, remained emotionless throughout her sentencing hearing, even as the severe injuries she inflicted to her three-year-old son were described.

(Cuyahoga County Prosecutors Office )

Yaniel RIvera at his father's home, following seven weeks in hospitals recovering from injuries inflicted by his mother.

CLEVELAND, Ohio - A mother who beat her three-year-old child so brutally that he died in an emergency room before medical personnel brought him back to life, was sentenced to 19 years in prison Tuesday.

Carla Rivera, 28, of Cleveland, apologized and said she was overwhelmed and is bipolar.

"I love my kids very well," she told Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Kathleen Ann Sutula at her sentencing hearing. "Everybody makes mistakes."

Sutula was not impressed and followed the wishes of assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor Jennifer Driscoll, who called Rivera a "monster," and two veteran Cleveland police detectives. She sentenced Rivera to maximum, consecutive terms for two counts of endangering children and one count of felonious assault.

"I have been on the job 23 years and have never seen any baby, anybody, even a dog, beat up this bad," Det. Morris Vowell told Sutula during the sentencing. Vowell, who investigated the case with Det. Charlie McNeely, choked up as he described the child's condition and Rivera's lack of concern.

"When I talked to her that night it was as if she didn't care," he said. "She said 'I didn't do anything wrong. I'm a good mother.'"

Yaniel Rivera was taken to MetroHealth Medical Center on March 4 after Rivera was begged to call 911.

He had a lacerated spleen, a perforated bowel, multiple cuts, bruises, cigarette burns and injuries to the right foot that included exposed bone and a human bite mark to the left ankle.

He also had old rib fractures.

He weighed 27 pounds, was severely malnourished, dehydrated and was in renal failure.

He was resuscitated at Metro and flown by helicopter to Akron Children's Hospital. He lost five toes to frostbite, because his mother put him outside in the cold, and part of his intestine was removed.

He spent 7 weeks recovering. He celebrated his fourth birthday.

After two weeks in a Cleveland Clinic rehabilitation center he went to live with his father, Victor Soler.

Soler and his family prepared and showed a four-minute video in court. It included photographs of Yaniel in the hospital and his recovery.

Rivera stood to the side and did not look at the screen. Rivera had the first of seven children with five fathers while in eighth grade, her attorney, Susan Moran said. She said Rivera had been abused as a child.

Her other children witnessed her attacks on Yaniel. Rivera's boyfriend told officials she beat Yaniel because she hated his father.

Yaniel's 9-year-old brother told detectives that his mother beat Yaniel often with a broom, prosecutors said.

Driscoll said Yaniel was non-verbal and was too young to defend himself. Cuyahoga County case workers were involved with another child but Rivera never asked them or family members for help or said she was overwhelmed, she said.

Rivera's other children are living with a grandmother.

McNeely and Vowell, who both said it was a miracle Yaniel survived, recently visited him.

"He was climbing and chasing the dog," McNeeley said. "Pound for pound this young man is the toughest person I ever met."