American tennis player Jessica Pegula revealed details about her mother Kim’s medical condition for the first time in an article in The Players’ Tribune on Tuesday, saying the co-owner of the Buffalo Bills and Sabres is recovering after going into cardiac arrest last June.
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Kim Pegula, who co-owns Buffalo’s NFL and NHL teams with her husband Terry, was hospitalized in Florida after the incident at their home.
Jessica wrote that her sister, Kelly, saved Kim’s life by performing CPR before paramedics restored her heartbeat. Kelly, who was staying at her parents’ house, had received CPR training just months earlier.
“My mom was asleep when my dad woke up to her going into cardiac arrest and she was unresponsive for quite a while,” Jessica wrote. “My sister gave her CPR until the ambulance arrived. She saved her life. Even though she doesn’t like to take credit for this terrible situation, she absolutely saved her life, followed by the critical job performed by the paramedics who arrived and were able to restore a heartbeat.”
Jessica said she decided to share the story when she told her husband it was weighing on her after Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest during a game in Cincinnati on Jan. 2. He was saved by CPR administered on the field.
Jessica said Kim, 53, is in recovery, but there is a long road ahead.
“She is dealing with significant expressive aphasia and significant memory issues. She can read, write, and understand pretty well, but she has trouble finding the words to respond,” Jessica wrote. “It is hard to deal with and it takes a lot of patience to communicate with her, but I thank God every day that we can still communicate with her at all. The doctors continue to be blown away by her recovery, considering where she started, and her determination is the driving force of that.”
Jessica wrote that her mom moved out of the ICU after about a week, going into an in-patient care facility.
“Three of my best friends are doctors and after the situation calmed down, they told me that it was a miracle she was even on her way to recovery, as did every other doctor who worked with her,” Jessica writes.
Jessica Pegula is ranked No. 4 in the WTA Tour rankings. She was in Australia when the Hamlin emergency occurred.
“Then in January we came to some bizarre, messed-up, full-circle moment. Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest on the field during the Monday night game against the Cincinnati Bengals,” she wrote. “My stomach sunk because it felt like the exact same thing all over again. I was sitting on the bench for a tennis event in Sydney, Australia. I wanted to throw up.
“I was supposed to go on for mixed doubles in 15 minutes and I remember telling one of my teammates, ‘I am a little freaked out right now, this is too close to home, and I feel like I am going to have a panic attack.’ Again, I usually don’t get too much anxiety, but the thought of what Damar and his family were about to go through hurt my heart. I knew how important time was. I just kept thinking time, time, time, time. I hope they got him back and quick enough. The medical staff and trainers who assisted that night really saved his life and were tremendous in his recovery. I ended up going on for mixed doubles and we won.”
She wore a No. 3 patch — Hamlin’s number — in January at the Australian Open.
“However, it didn’t feel like it was just for him, it felt like it was for my mom as well. To see the attention it garnered in Australia, across the world, in a different country, just reminded me why I love sports and the beauty of coming together,” Jessica wrote. “Some of my close friends who know every detail of what has happened tell me, ‘I don’t know how you have made it through the year, let alone finished No. 3 in the world.’ I just say I have no freaking clue. I guess one thing I learned from the past year is it can be a great year, and a bad year, both can be true.”
Kim and Terry Pegula, who both grew up in Western New York, bought the Sabres in 2011 and the Bills in 2014. The latter purchase was an emotional rallying cry for the region, which feared losing the team after the death of founder Ralph Wilson.
The Kim Pegula story has been part of a challenging year for Buffalo — which has included Hamlin’s medical situation, more than 40 deaths caused by a severe winter storm and the murder of 10 people in a supermarket mass shooting targeting the Black community.
“It has been a tough year but at the same time I feel lucky and blessed,” Jessica Pegula wrote. “I am thankful she is still with us when other families may not have been so lucky. That she even had a chance at recovery when the first week in the hospital seemed so dim. Thankful for the doctors that aided in her recovery. Thankful that she is now home, that she gets to watch the Bills, Sabres, and my tennis matches.
“She never watched my matches before, because she got too nervous. Now she watches all of them.”
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