Bollywood couple Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover welcomed their first child, Devi Basu Singh Grover, on November 12, 2022, and they later learned that kid was born with ventricular septal defect (VSD), a condition characterised by two holes in her heart. In an open and heartfelt chat with actor Neha Dhupia on Instagram Live, Bipasha shared the emotional journey, which included Devi undergoing surgery at approximately three months old to address the condition.
Bipasha candidly spoke about the phase, saying, “Our journey has been very different from any normal mother-father, it has been a lot tougher than the smile that I have on my face right now. I would not wish this to happen to any mother. For a new mother, when you get to know that... 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...”
Bipasha shared that the first five months had been extremely challenging, but Devi had been strong and fabulous from the beginning. The couple went through a turbulent phase, grappling with the news while keeping it to themselves initially. They wanted to celebrate their newborn's arrival, yet they felt a mix of emotions, including numbness.
The actor said that the advice given to them by the doctors was to monitor the holes monthly to check if they were healing on their own, but given the size of the holes, surgery was a possibility. Bipasha recalled, “We were told that every month, we have to do a scan to know if it's healing on its own. But the kind of large hole that she had, we were told that it was doubtful, you will have to go through surgery. And the surgery is best done, when the child is three-months-old.”
Facing the decision of putting their child through open-heart surgery, Bipasha expressed the inner turmoil and conflict they felt. “You feel so sad, so burdened and so conflicted, because how can you put a child in open heart surgery? Something natural will happen, and people like us who are believers, we try to manifest it with our thoughts that it will start healing on itself. In the first month, it didn't happen, in the second month, didn't happen. And I remember the third month, when we went for the scan, I pretty much did all the research, met surgeons, had been to hospitals, spoken to doctors, and I was kind of ready, Karan was not ready. I knew that she had to be okay and I knew that she will be okay. And she is okay now. But the tough decision was to get your child operated at the right place and at the right time,” she added.
Bipasha said that the surgery took place when Devi was three months old and lasted for six hours. She described feeling as though her life had come to a halt while her daughter was in the operation theatre. The actor shared that she experienced anxiety, but her worries were alleviated when the surgery turned out to be successful, and she happily added that Devi is now doing well.