The roar of the crowd at Highmark Stadium is something Buffalo Bills fans live for. The electricity of a Sunday afternoon, the anticipation of a playoff run—these are the moments that define a city and its beloved football team. But in the summer of 2022, everything changed. The most important game wasn’t being played on a field under the bright lights. It was being fought in a Florida home, in the back of an ambulance, and in the sterile silence of an intensive care unit.
Kim Pegula, the beloved co-owner of the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres, suffered a sudden cardiac arrest at her home in June 2022, just days after celebrating her 53rd birthday. What followed was a terrifying ordeal that would test the strength of an entire family and captivate a city that had come to love the woman affectionately known as the “Mama Bear” of the Bills organization.
And while the Bills have continued their quest for a Super Bowl championship on the gridiron, Kim Pegula has been waging her own battle—one that, by any measure, she is winning.
The Night Everything Changed
The details of that night emerged slowly, shared with the world not through press releases or team statements, but through the words of a daughter grappling with the unimaginable. Jessica Pegula, a top-ranked tennis star, wrote a deeply personal essay in February 2023, revealing the harrowing truth of what happened.
Kim Pegula’s daughter, Kelly, performed CPR on her mother, fighting to keep her alive until paramedics could arrive. In a moment that Terry Pegula would later reflect on with painful clarity, the family ran past an automated external defibrillator (AED) three times in their home because they didn’t know where it was. It was a detail that would later drive Terry to become an advocate for CPR training and AED accessibility.
“We ran by an AED in our closet in our home three times, and didn’t know it was there,” Terry Pegula said at a CPR clinic in 2025, his voice carrying the weight of that memory. It is a confession that speaks to the chaos of those moments—the panic, the fear, the desperate race against time.
The Long Road Back
The initial weeks were grim. Doctors offered little certainty. The Pegula family, usually so present and accessible, retreated into privacy, releasing only brief statements about Kim’s condition. She spent extensive time in the hospital, undergoing treatment and beginning what would become a long and arduous rehabilitation process.
When Jessica Pegula finally opened up about her mother’s condition, she revealed the true scope of the challenge. Kim was dealing with significant expressive aphasia and significant memory issues. The woman who had once been the face of a billion-dollar sports empire—who had negotiated contracts, designed a new stadium, and served on NFL committees—now struggled to find the words to respond in conversation.
“She can read, write, and understand pretty well, but she has trouble finding the words to respond,” Jessica 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.”
For a family that had experienced so much success, this was uncharted territory. Terry Pegula, the billionaire businessman who built a fortune in natural gas, found himself in the most vulnerable position of his life. At a groundbreaking ceremony for the Bills’ new stadium, he grew emotional while referencing his wife. He quoted the Bellamy Brothers’ song “You’re My Favorite Star” and said simply, “And Kim, you are my favorite star.”
Baby Steps and Breakthroughs
Recovery from cardiac arrest and the resulting brain injury is rarely linear. It comes in moments—small victories that might seem insignificant to outsiders but mean everything to those fighting for them.
The first sign of progress came in subtle ways. Kim began watching Bills practices from the family’s SUV, parked near the end zone at St. John Fisher University. She wasn’t walking onto the field yet. She wasn’t addressing the team. But she was there. She was present. For a family that had nearly lost her, that presence was everything.
“The doctors continue to be blown away by her recovery, considering where she started, and her determination is the driving force of that,” Jessica Pegula said. Those words—”her determination”—echo throughout every update on Kim’s condition. It is the same determination that helped her rise from being an orphaned child adopted from South Korea at age five to becoming one of the most powerful women in professional sports.
The Moment We All Needed
Then came the moment that brought tears to the eyes of everyone who has followed this story.
At a Bills training camp practice, Terry Pegula walked to the passenger side of the SUV, opened the door, and gently helped his wife out. Her steps were tentative, uncertain. But she was walking. She was moving forward, literally and figuratively.
He led her to the field where the team had gathered. Josh Allen, the franchise quarterback, stepped forward and put his arm around her. And then, in a moment that felt like something scripted for Hollywood, Kim Pegula raised her left hand as Allen counted down. When he reached three, her voice joined the chorus: “Bills!”
Left tackle Dion Dawkins, who had been with the team throughout this ordeal, couldn’t hide his emotion. “That’s still the Mama Bear,” he said. “We’ve seen her every day, and to see her progress, it’s amazing. I’m proud of her.”
Coach Sean McDermott grew emotional when asked about the moment. “How do you put that in words? Grateful and perspective, I think, are the two words that come to mind.”
A Shared Journey with Damar Hamlin
The football gods, in their mysterious way, created an unexpected parallel to Kim Pegula’s story. On January 2, 2023, Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field in Cincinnati after suffering cardiac arrest during a game. The world watched in horror as medical staff performed CPR and used an AED to save his life.
For the Pegula family, watching that night was particularly triggering. They had lived through this nightmare just months earlier. Terry Pegula spent the night at the hospital with Hamlin’s family, sitting with them in the waiting room, offering the kind of understanding that only someone who has been there can provide.
The connection between the Pegula family and Hamlin has become something profound. At a training camp practice, Kim Pegula got out of the car and found Hamlin. They posed for a picture with songwriter Doug Johnson—all three survivors of sudden cardiac arrest. Terry Pegula had the photo printed immediately.
“These three people have something in common,” Terry said, holding up the photo. “They all died from sudden cardiac arrest.”
It was a stark, powerful statement. But it was also a statement about survival. About second chances. About the miracle of being present when it matters most.
Why She Has Already Won
The Buffalo Bills continue their pursuit of the Lombardi Trophy, a goal that has eluded the franchise for decades. But for those who have followed Kim Pegula’s journey, there is a different scoreboard being watched.
The playoffs come and go. Seasons end. But what Kim Pegula has done—fighting her way back from the brink of death, relearning how to communicate, standing on a football field surrounded by the team she loves—that is not measured in wins and losses. It is measured in moments. In the daughter who performed CPR. In the husband who never left her side. In the quarterback who knelt down to be at eye level with her. In the voice that whispered “Bills” when many feared she might never speak again.
She walked off that field on her own two feet. Not because she had to, but because she wanted to show the world—and perhaps herself—that she is still here. Still fighting. Still winning.
Forget the playoffs. Kim Pegula just won the most important game of her life. And for the Bills Mafia, for the city of Buffalo, and for everyone who has watched this story unfold, that victory means more than any Super Bowl ever could.
