This is what I do, its a little messy, but when you get the hang of it, works quite well.

sub db_get {
..
..
    # fetch the rows into an array reference
    while ( $retstat = $sth->fetchrow_hashref ) {      
        push @retval, [$retstat];
    }
..
..
return @retval
}
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To dereference it I do:

    my $value = $ary[0][0]->{<key>}
    # to Shorten it (so it's not so hard to type) 
    my %short = %{$ary[0][0]};
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As I said, its messy, but it works for me.