Sports fans in Western New York finally know what happened to Kim Pegula last June.
Kim, the co-owner of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres with husband Terry Pegula and president of Pegula Sports and Entertainment (PSE), was hospitalized for an undisclosed medical emergency but the nature of it was never revealed. From that point forward, the sports world sat in the dark and the situation eventually faded away from the public consciousness.
Then on Tuesday (Feb. 7), their daughter Jessica Pegula pulled back the curtain on her mother’s condition and how serious it had been. It finally gave fans the answers they spent almost a year waiting for and it proved to be a situation the city was already very familiar with.
CPR Saved Kim Pegula’s Life
Jessica Pegula, the fourth-ranked women’s tennis player in the world and Terry and Kim’s eldest child, released a candid and heartfelt personal essay for The Players’ Tribune that finally broke the silence and explained what had occurred. The situation was unfortunately far more severe than many had imagined.
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In June 2022, less than a week after her 53rd birthday, Kim suddenly entered cardiac arrest while asleep at the family’s Florida home and was unresponsive for many minutes. Her younger daughter Kelly immediately performed CPR, which Jessica credits (along with paramedics) with saving their mother’s life. She was then rushed to the ICU of Baptist Boca Raton Regional Hospital, where she remained for a week before being transferred to an in-patient center.
Though Kim’s life was saved, the damage had regrettably been done. Jessica revealed that, as a result of her brain being deprived of oxygen for a prolonged period, Kim has developed expressive aphasia, a condition that inhibits the brain’s ability to process and produce speech, as well as memory issues. She stressed that her mother is recovering and progressing, but still faces an uphill climb and has struggled with communication at times.
Though the prognosis for Kim appears to be optimistic, it is unclear how much she will recover and there is a possibility that she will not be able to return to her position at PSE. ESPN reported in January that Terry had appointed John Roth as chief operating officer of the company, who will assume many of her duties.
Shades of Damar Hamlin
The most poignant part of Jessica’s essay was when she acknowledged how eerily similar her mother’s case was to that of one of the players on her football team.
In a truly grim bit of irony, just seven months after Kim was hospitalized, Buffalo Bills’ defensive back Damar Hamlin endured virtually the exact same scenario. During a game between the Bills and Cincinnati Bengals on Jan. 2, he went into cardiac arrest from blunt force trauma (comottio cordis) after making a tackle and collapsed on the field. He had CPR administered by trainers and paramedics and it too was credited as lifesaving. He was taken in an ambulance to a Cincinnati hospital and was discharged nine days later. The game never resumed.
Jessica stated that the Hamlin incident was a full-circle moment and that it compelled her and her family to finally speak up about what had happened to her mother. She wore a patch bearing Hamlin’s No. 3 when she competed at the Australian Open last month, where she was defeated in the quarterfinals.
Though both occurrences were harrowing, they also make an overwhelming case for the importance of CPR knowledge and how crucial it can be. Hamlin himself recently announced that he’s partnering with the American Heart Association (AHA) in a campaign to spread awareness (from “Jessica Pegula says sister Kelly saved their mom, Kim, highlighting value of CPR education”, The Buffalo News, 2/7/2023).
“As you know, CPR saved my life earlier this year on the field,” he said in a video released by the AHA. “And CPR could easily save your life or someone you love.”
Buffalo Rallies Together Once Again
Just as it did with Hamlin, the city of Buffalo has responded with an overwhelming show of love and support for Kim since the revelation of her condition, as fans and media alike have taken to social media to wish her and her family well. Terry recently made one of his first public appearances since his wife’s hospitalization when he attended Ryan Miller’s jersey retirement on Jan. 19 and received a warm ovation from the crowd.
Kim has been a true trailblazer since she and Terry purchased the Sabres in February 2011 and the Bills in September 2014. She is one of just three non-US-born owners in the NFL and became the first female president of a team in both NFL and NHL history when she took the helm of both the Sabres and Bills in May 2018. Though their tenure has been at times controversial, this is the exact type of scenario that puts in perspective just how little sports mean in the grand scheme of things.
Instead, it’s important to focus on the immeasurable good the Pegulas have done for the Western New York community over the past 12 years. In addition to committing to keeping both teams in the region (the Bills were facing potential relocation before being purchased by PSE), the couple has helped revitalize the city of Buffalo. Most notably a multi-million dollar revamping of its dilapidated waterfront district transformed it from a wasteland into a major center for both business and recreation. The addition of the LECOM Harborcenter complex to the Sabres’ KeyBank Center has also provided state-of-the-art facilities for community and collegiate hockey programs to utilize.
Additionally, PSE stepped in to help last May after the mass shooting that occurred on the east side of the city. Numerous players and members of both the Sabres and Bills organizations volunteered to help distribute food and supplies at the site of the incident in the days that followed. It was clear evidence of their commitment to the people of Western New York and a reminder that the best sports teams are the ones that give back to their communities.
As a result, the people of Western New York have paid it forward. Just as was the case with Hamlin, this isn’t a matter of sport, but of life. The city of Buffalo and the sports world have both rallied together in support of Kim Pegula. Not Kim Pegula the executive, but the human being. May she continue to heal and recover and may her family find catharsis and strength in numbers.
