my $retval = eval {
      $sth->execute(@values);
  };
  unless ($retval) {
      _db_recover();
  }

  ...
sub _db_recover {
   eval {
      $dbh->disconnect();
   };
   warn("reconnecting to database in 20 seconds\n");
   sleep 20;
   eval {
      $dbh->connect(@somevalues);
   };
}