Blue Jackets Reporter Aaron Portzline Receives Kidney Donation from Team Employee

Six months after going public with the information that he was in kidney failure, longtime Columbus Blue Jackets reporter Aaron Portzline is set to receive a kidney transplant thanks to a Blue Jackets employee.

According to WOSU 89.7's Allie Vugrincic, Blue Jackets communications specialist Lindy Noel said she was "inspired" to see if she was a match for Portzline after he announced his diagnosis in October, and it was determined in March that she was.

Portzline, who has covered the Blue Jackets since their inception first for the Columbus Dispatch and now for The Athletic, has polycystic kidney disease, which runs in his family.

He has had to undergo dialysis regularly as a result, but that will no longer be the case once he receives a new kidney from Noel this week.

Portzline said that over the past several months, there were multiple occasions when he came close to being a match with a donor kidney, but there was no perfect match until Noel's selfless act.

While Portzline and Noel know each other and have interacted in the past, they have never worked closely together, which speaks even more to Noel's compassion.

Portzline called it "an incredible, charitable act," and called for anyone with interest in becoming an organ donor to take the necessary steps to make it happen since doing so can save lives.