A system and method for recovering erased symbols in a wireless communication is provided. The system and method includes a receiver configured to receive encoded data transmissions. The receiver includes a single stage decoder configured to perform a decoding operation. The single stage decoder also is configured to determine a symbol erasure rate, the symbol erasure rate defined by a number of erased symbols. The single stage decoder further is configured to generate a recovery matrix based on the symbol erasure rate and invert the recovery matrix. Thereafter, the single stage decoder recovers the erased symbols based on a function of the inverted recovery matrix.