Soldier in "Coming Home" series dies after surgery

Soldier in "Coming Home" series dies after surgery
Charged with murdering his girlfriend, John Needham's war wounds went untreated
By Michael de Yoanna and Mark Benjamin

Michael de Yoanna first met John Needham when the troubled soldier stepped off a plane near Fort Carson, Colo., in November 2007. De Yoanna didn't know it at the time, but a year later Needham would be part of a lengthy Salon series about soldiers involved in murders or suicides as the Army neglected their psychological war wounds. Reporters de Yoanna and Mark Benjamin documented Needham’s tale as part of the “Coming Home” series, after Needham was arrested for allegedly beating his girlfriend to death in late 2008.

Now Needham is gone too. He died on Saturday, Feb. 20, about 10 days after back surgery at a Veteran's Affairs hospital in Tucson, Ariz. The circumstances surrounding Needham’s death are unclear. According to his father, Mike Needham, an older brother discovered John Needham slumped over his bed at his mother’s house in Arizona, his face blue. Efforts by his brother, and then rescuers, to revive him were unsuccessful.
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Soldier in Coming Home series dies after surgery