Mumbai: Bipasha Basu broke down during an interview, recalling her baby daughter’s battle with Ventricular Septic Disease (VSD) and how she had to put her through open heart surgery when she was just three months old.
The 'Dhoom 2' actress was speaking to actress and talk show host Neha Dhupia.
Bipasha and her husband Karan Singh Grover welcomed their daughter on November 12, 2022, and named her Devi Basu Singh Grover.
While it was unknown at the time, Devi was born with VSD, which led to a lot of problems for them, leaving her emotionally crushed.
The actress while speaking to Dhupia regarding her experience of motherhood said that she was not really in a position to talk about motherhood as "every day is a learning experience", and, while motherhood is full of its own turbulences, it was something she looked at with sheer marvel and amazement as she looked upon "this beauty that is my daughter."
She said that when she got married to Karan in 2016, she told him that they need to have a level of maturity and responsibility before they even discussed the prospects of a child.
She proceeded to say: "You know we had later reached a level where we were so strong as a couple that we started having dreams of having a baby girl. It was surreal."
"I told Karan that she (her unborn daughter then) was appearing in my dreams. I always referred to her as 'she' to which Karan was like, 'You know you don't get to learn about the sex of your child so soon'. But I know that was because I could feel her growing inside me," Bipasha said.
She revealed that she never really thought that she was ever even going to be a wife, let alone have a child, which was the reason she opted for a late marriage.
The actress went on to detail her struggles and added that her child with Karan, was a very different experience compared to others, but her world turned around for the worse when they found out that Devi had VSD.
"I got to know on the third day of me having a baby that our baby is born with two holes in her heart. I thought I'll not share this, but I'm sharing this because I feel that there are a lot of mothers who helped me in this journey, and it was very difficult to find those mothers..."
Talking about VSD, she said: "We didn't even understand what a VSD is. It is a ventricular septic disease... We went through a crazy period. We didn't discuss this with our family; we both were in a little bit of a blur. We wanted to celebrate but we were a little numb, me and Karan."
"The first five months have been very difficult for us. But Devi has been fabulous from day one. We were told that every month, we have to do a scan to know if it's healing on its own. But with the kind of large hole that she had, we were told that it was doubtful, she will have to go through surgery. And the surgery is best done when the child is three-months-old."
Getting teary-eyed, Bipashu said: "That you feel so sad and burdened, conflicted because how could you put such a small child through open-heart surgery, and something natural would happen. And especially for people like us, who are believers, we like to manifest this with our thoughts," adding that she would heal.
Bipasha, however, later smiled again and went on to say that her little baby girl is a fighter and braveheart who managed to pull through, and she was staring at her in awe, wondering just what a hero she really is, harbouring a very strong spirit.
A Ventricular Septic Disease or Defect, is a common occurrence during pregnancy. It is a heart disease where the blood starts to flow from the left ventricle to the right ventricle and into the lungs when the natural order is reversed.
This extra blood being pumped into the lungs forces the heart and lungs to work harder. It can be easily cured, but if not examined immediately, it could lead to fatal complications for an infant.