Ta’afuli Andrew Fiu...
was born in 1965 in the village of Lefaga, Matautu, a small province of Apia in Western Samoa. In 1970, Andrew, his parents and younger brother migrated to Auckland, New Zealand. In 1979, at the age of 14, he became seriously ill. A doctor’s misdiagnosis of his condition as a‘bad cold’ resulted in rheumatic fever, damaging Andrew’s heart valves and becoming untreatable through medication.
During the next 26 years, he underwent four planned open-heart surgeries and one unscheduled reopening. (According to some health professionals, surviving five open-heart surgeries is a record.) On two different occasions he has died and been revived. Andrew grew up in hospital, and his years in cardiac wards have armed him with life experiences most people will never encounter. Although he must continue to live on a cocktail of medications, he thrives and continues to be an optimist.
Fiu, Ta’afuli Andrew
(1965 –) writes non-fiction.
Andrew currently divides his time between Queensland, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand.
His first book Purple Heart (Random, 2006) is the story of his years in hospital, following a bout of rheumatic fever as a teenager.
Andrew is available for the Book Council’s Writers in Schools programme. He prefers to speak to secondary school students, and is prepared to discuss his inspirations, growing up Samoan in New Zealand, dying and surviving five open-heart operations, and never giving up on anything.