In France at least, some thousands did die during the heat wave, but averaged over a longer period to the end of the year, there were no more deaths than normal. So whilst you might claim the heatwave killed thousands, they were going to die anyway over the next few months. The heatwave merely knocked up to a few months off their lives. The imaginary images of thousands of healthy people dying across Europe which the press generated (particularly in the US) was highly misleading.