‘This is too close to home’: Tennis star Jessica Pegula recalls Damar Hamlin’s NFL collapse, and her mother’s own cardiac arrest

Jessica Pegula has relived the trauma she suffered during the Australian tennis summer when a Buffalo Bills player went into cardiac arrest, mirroring the experience of her mother.

Pegula revealed her mother Kim, co-owner and president of NFL franchise Buffalo Bills and NHL hockey team Buffalo Sabres, is dealing with significant language and memory issues after going into cardiac arrest in June 2022 and nearly dying.

The shock of that night was brought back to her when Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest on the field during the January 2 game in Cincinnati in what Pegula described as “some bizarre, messed-up, full circle moment.”

“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,” wrote Pegula in an essay for The Players’ Tribune published on Tuesday.

“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.'”

Pegula was preparing to play a United Cup mixed doubles match with Francis Tiafoe for USA against Germany. The world number four won that match, and subsequently the whole event.