Buffalo Bills and Sabres owner Kim Pegula is handling both speech and memory issues after suffering heart attack in 2015 … her child, Jessica Pegula, exposed on Tuesday.
The tennis star opened about her mama’s health in a psychological piece for The Players’ Tribune — describing it’s been an uphill struggle for Kim after she almost lost her life following a June 2022 medical emergency situation.
Jessica stated she initially found out of the issues including the 53-year-old a couple of days after she had actually gone back to the U.S. from the French Open in 2015.
“I got a call around midnight (on my mom’s birthday) from my sister Kelly who was staying at my parents’ house,” Jessica stated. “Something was wrong with our mom, and she was headed to the hospital in an ambulance.”
Jessica exposed Kim had actually entered into heart attack while asleep — however, luckily, Kelly carried out CPR on her up until medics got here.
“She saved her life,” Jessica stated of Kelly.
Jessica stated her mama went on to invest a week in the ICU … however after making little enhancements with aid from her group of physicians, she was moved into an in-patient care center, where she started talking a little.
Now, Jessica stated her mama is gradually enhancing … however “she is dealing with significant expressive aphasia and significant memory issues.”
“She can read, write, and understand pretty well,” Jessica stated, “but she has trouble finding the words to respond.”
“It is hard to deal with,” she included, “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.”
Jessica says she remained in Sydney, Australia last month for a tennis occasion when Buffalo Bills security Damar Hamlin suffered a comparable health scare to her mom … and she stated she right away ended up being ill over all of it.
“My stomach sunk because it felt like the exact same thing all over again,” Jessica stated … prior to exposing she informed among her colleagues, “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.”
Last month, Jessica — ranked No. 3 on the planet at the time — selected to use a #3 spot to honor Hamlin at the Australian Open … and the 28-year-old says she seemed like she was honoring her mama, too, because their stories are so comparable.