The Heimlich manoeuvre worked on none of them, because they died. It might have been possible to prevent some of those deaths with wider or more effective provision, but that would also have costs.
3) Continued proper behaviour after the Heimlich manoeuvre failed
There is a good chance the people who died were alone, that everyone around them panicked and froze up, or that nobody realized the person was in danger (people who choke are actually more likely to leave the room than try to tell someone). People often don't call 911 until it's too late.
I do see the OP's point that potentially education and teaching of what to actually do in these scenarios would be more effective than buying a vast number of these devices. I took a first aid course and I can say that while the majority of people know what the Heimlich manoeuvre is, I don't believe they'd behave properly in a chocking situation.
That said, I think these should definitely be put to trial runs to find out :)
My point is that I don't think that's a problem that can be solved with a few posters. It doesn't matter if the deaths could have technically been prevented with the Heimlich manoeuvre unless there's a cheap and practical way to get people to perform it properly.
So you think a problem that can't be solved with a picture of someone helping someone choking by grabbing them from behind and squeezing can be solved by having them find this gadget and figuring out how to use it? Curious.
I'm thinking that there is quite a bit of cost saved by posting a sheet of paper explaining the Heimlich maneuver instead of installing one of these devices. Give out free smoke detectors with the saved money.
If saving thousands of lives was that easy, someone would probably have already done it.
Edit: Not saying it couldn't help, but I don't think it's reasonable to assume most of those lives could be saved by putting some posters up unless you have some evidence.
