I was thinking along the lines of: (warning: untested code ahead)

package Foo;
...
our $error;
*DBI::carp = sub { $Foo::error = shift };
...
my $self->{dbh} = DBI->connect( ... ) or carp $error;
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Lbh ebgngrq guvf grkg naq abj lbh pna ernq vg. Fb jung? :)   -- Whreq
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