A low-density parity-check (LDPC) decoder (304) has a memory (308), and a processor (306). The processor is programmed to initialize (202) the LDPC decoder, calculate (204) a probability for each check node, calculate (206) a probability for each bit node, calculate soft decisions, update the bit nodes according to the calculated soft decisions, calculate (208) values from the calculated soft decisions, perform (210) a parity check on the calculated values, update (218) log-likelihood ratios (LLRs) if a bit error is detected in the calculated values, update the bit nodes according to the updated LLRs, and repeat the foregoing post initialization steps.