Melbourne football player, 28, hospitalized with pneumonia awaits COVID-19 test results

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Update 7:25 p.m. Saturday:

Dylan Reda was discharged Saturday night from Holmes Regional Medical Center to quarantine at home.

"I’ve been discharged and am home now! Thank you for all the prayers! A special thank you to Holmes Regional Hospital for the great care and consideration! They are an incredible staff and looked after me so well! God bless you all," Reda posted on Facebook.

Original story:

The first flu-like symptoms struck Dylan Reda "like a ton of bricks" on March 11, when he returned to his apartment in the Czech Republic after football practice.

"All of a sudden, I started sweating profusely from out of nowhere and had a real high temperature right away. My face was red," Reda recalled.

"Throughout that whole night, I got body aches — really severe. I was just in cold sweats constantly," he said.

Reda, 28, of Melbourne, plays linebacker for the Prague Lions, a professional American football team. He developed severe pneumonia — and lost his sense of taste — before flying home Sunday to the Space Coast as COVID-19 was triggering travel restrictions and border closures.

Then he began spitting up blood. At his grandmother's urging, Reda went to Holmes Regional Medical Center about noon Friday.

Reda said he underwent medical testing and blood work there, and he consulted an emergency room doctor who wore a protective visor, rubber suit, shoe covers and gloves: "I felt like I was in 'E.T.' or something."

He said he was admitted to the hospital and placed in isolation, where he remains.

"I don't get my (COVID-19) test back until Monday. When they took the CT scan of my chest, they told me I've got it unless the test says otherwise, the way that this pneumonia presented itself," Reda said during a Saturday morning phone interview.

According to the Florida Department of Health, four Brevard County residents — two men and two women — had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Saturday morning. Three of the cases were travel-related.

As of Saturday morning, 48 people in Brevard had been tested, the Department of Health website shows. Thirty-eight tests came back negative, and results of six tests remain pending.

A Health First spokeswoman referred media inquiries to the Department of Health.

A native of San Juan Capistrano, California, Reda was a starting linebacker at the University of Southern Mississippi from 2012-13. He was listed at 6 foot-1 and 233 pounds.

After college, he played linebacker in Denmark for the Triangle Razorbacks for three seasons. Last season was his first playing for the Prague Lions.

Reda's family moved to Cocoa Beach after he graduated from Southern Miss in 2014. He and his wife, Lauren, have two young children: Leia, 2; and Atlas, 3 months.

"He's very healthy, so that's what's concerning about the whole situation. His immune system is strong, so I guarantee he'll be able to fight it — unlike some, unfortunately," said Melbourne resident Marley Reda, Dylan's younger sister.

"It's definitely scary. I've been quarantining myself like I'm supposed to and not really being around many people, just in case. But I don't have any symptoms. His wife doesn't have any symptoms. Neither do the kids," Marley Reda said.

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Dylan Reda said his three roommates in the Czech Republic also fell ill with flu-like symptoms before he returned to Florida.

"I had a feeling that maybe I had contracted the COVID-19 because I was riding so much public transit. I was on the tram four, five times a day. I was riding the subway. I was riding the bus," Reda said.

"So I was just constantly around a lot of people," he said.

Back home, Reda said he called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and asked to take a COVID-19 test, but he was denied.

"I told them I was younger, and I didn't feel like I was going to die, obviously. But it was pretty frustrating because I did want to get tested," he said.

Reda is chronicling his condition from the hospital via Facebook, generating hundreds of shares and comments.

"I just want to raise more awareness. I feel there's a lot of people in my age group in their 20s that think, 'Oh, we're invincible. This isn't going to hurt us. It's just a flu,' " Reda said.

Wearing a hospital gown, Reda updated his status in a Saturday morning Facebook video.

"This is Day 2 in quarantine. I'm feeling good. My breathing is feeling better. I haven't been spitting up blood as often," Reda said.

"I feel like I can take good deep breaths now. I'm feeling like my lungs are feeling better. So I think they're going to do another CT scan on my chest today to see how my lungs are looking," he said.

Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1. To subscribe: https://cm.floridatoday.com/specialoffer/

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