Families dealing with heart failure are sharing how they have overcome illness and how to prevent tragedy at the American Heart Association's Heart Ball in Madison.

They say many heart conditions can be corrected, but only if the appropriate tests catch them in time.

Joanne and Jim Driscoll are sharing the story of their grandson, Quinn, who died suddenly during junior high gym class. Relatives were later shocked to find he had been living with an enlarged heart.

"He was jogging on the track before Phys. Ed, class," said Jim Driscoll. "He said 'c'mon, let's kick it in,' and those were the last words he said."

Driscoll says Quinn was an active athlete, but might have been advised to take it easier if his condition was known. Family members on Jim's side of the family have a history of heart attacks, but Quinn was never administered the cardiac screening that could have foreseen his condition.

Now Quinn's parents and grandparents are hoping others with genetic links to heart failure get tested. Some insurance companies may even cover exams, but their parents need to know to ask for them when their children are at risk.

When Billy and Amanda Van Wie's daughter Lauren was just hours old, emergency open-heart surgery saved her life.

The day after she was born, nurses gave Lauren a Pulse Ox test to measure oxygen in her blood. Not all hospitals do the test, but irregularities detected prevented Lauren from being sent home and ultimately saved her life.

"I just can't understand as a parent how you could hear if something would have happened to her, if they wouldn't have done the test, to find out later that this simple machine could have saved her life," said Lauren's Father Billy. "We just don't want other parents to have to go through that."