Bills co-owner Kim Pegula received life-saving CPR after cardiac arrest in June 2022

Bills co-owner Kim Pegula received life-saving CPR after cardiac arrest in June 2022
American tennis star Jessica Pegula shared details of her mother's June 2022 cardiac arrest in an essay with The Player's Tribune on Tuesday.

Her mother is Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres co-owner Kim Pegula.

The 28-year-old tennis player wrote that "It all started in Australia after the incident with Damar Hamlin." Pegula texted her husband that the situation with her mom was "weighing on" her, she was wondering when she could start talking about what happened to her mother and she needed to "get it off my chest."

Hamlin -- a starting safety on the Bills -- suffered a cardiac arrest during the team's Week 17 "Monday Night Football" game against the Cincinnati Bengals in early January. Hamlin's health scare and ongoing recovery dominated headlines last month.

In June of last year, it was reported that the elder Pegula was receiving treatment for "some unexpected health issues" and later in the month, was "progressing well." The fourth-ranked women's tennis player in the world wrote that she had recently arrived back in Florida after competing in the French Open when she received a call "around midnight" (on her mother's birthday) from her sister Kelly, who was staying with the parents.

"Something was wrong with our mom, and she was headed to the hospital in an ambulance. My mom was asleep when my dad woke up to her going into cardiac arrest and she was unresponsive for quite a while," the tennis player said. "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."

The 2023 Australian Open quarterfinalist further noted that her sister received her CPR certification "about three months" earlier. The tennis player relayed the news in a family group chat (including both Kelly and Kim) and the mother replied “Nice Kells! Now if we have a heart attack you can revive us.”

The top-ranked American women's tennis player continued that her family "lived in that hospital for basically two weeks," helping the Bills and Sabres co-owner recover, which is still very much an ongoing process. Jessica Pegula added that her mother "moved out of the ICU after about a week, and into an in-patient care facility," and all throughout the situation, she had to "deal with a lot of speculation and questions surrounding her health, even shutting down rumors that she had died."

"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. My stomach sunk because it felt like the exact same thing all over again," the tennis player wrote. "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."

The 14-year tennis pro wore a No. 3 patch during her recent Australian Open run, which ended in the quarterfinals against Victoria Azarenka.

"Thank you to the Buffalo community for your patience. I know you have wanted answers and it took us a while to get there but it finally felt like it was time," she wrote. "Thank you to everyone who has respected privacy and shown me and my family tremendous support throughout this ongoing journey."