BUFFALO, N.Y. — After the Pegula family kept the health information of Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres co-owner Kim Pegula private for over eight months, Jessica Pegula shared Tuesday that her mother suffered cardiac arrest in June 2022 and remains in recovery.
Kim Pegula continues to improve daily but is “dealing with significant expressive aphasia and significant memory issues,” and while she continues to work hard in her recovery, “where she ends up is still unknown,” Jessica Pegula wrote in an essay for The Players’ Tribune that was published Tuesday. She shared that her mother will most likely not be able to return to her roles in the way she had been.
“She can read, write, and understand pretty well, but she has trouble finding the words to respond,” Jessica Pegula, the No. 4 tennis player in the world, 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.”
Kim Pegula, 53, is president and CEO of Pegula Sports and Entertainment, and president and co-owner of the Bills and Sabres. She is the first woman to be named president of both an NFL and NHL team. The Pegulas have five children, including Jessica, Kelly, Matthew, Michael and Laura.
Kim Pegula is an advocate for increasing diversity in both the NFL and NHL and sat on the NFL workplace diversity committee. Pegula has served on the NFL’s Super Bowl and major events advisory committee, business ventures committee and NFL Foundation committee, in addition to co-chairing the NHL’s executive inclusion council.
“She was the woman behind my dad’s success and my dad would happily admit that. She jumped into this journey with him and learned many lessons along the way, breaking a lot of barriers,” Jessica Pegula wrote. “She was the shift in culture, positivity, and the heartbeat of many of the employees. She gave everyone so much of her time and effort. She lived it and loved it, and it was felt by everyone she met. Now we come to the realization that all of that is most likely gone. That she won’t be able to be that person anymore.”
Jessica Pegula, 28, shared that her mother was asleep when her dad, Bills and Sabres co-owner Terry Pegula, awoke to his wife going into cardiac arrest and that she was…
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