# Within some connect_to_db() function ...
   my $dbh = try {
      DBI->connect(
         $conn_string,
         $props{USER},
         $props{PWD},
         {
            PrintError => 0,
            RaiseError => 1,
         },
      )
   } otherwise {
      throw Error::Database -text => (
         $DBI::errstr
         || $@
         || "Unknown Error: '$conn_string'"
      );
   };
 
   $dbh->{HandleError} = sub { throw Error::Database -text => $DBI::errstr };
 
   return $dbh;
}

# Now, any DB action I take that would ordinarily return undef
# will now throw an Error::Database. As long as all my DB
# activity is within a try-catch area, I'm fine. :-)

# Within another section, I have:
my ($dbh, $fh);
try
{
   my ($properties, $datafile) = Parameter::Validate(@ARGV, 2);
 
   $dbh = Database::Connect(File::ReadProperties($properties));
   my %db_values = Retrieve_DB_Values($dbh);
 
   $fh = File::Open(
      $datafile,
      mode => 'w',
   );

   # Do more stuff here
}
catch Error::Simple with
{
   my ($err, $recover) = @_;
   throw Error::Unknown -text => $err->text;
}
catch Error with
{
   my ($err, $recover) = @_;
   die $err->text . $/;
}
otherwise
{
   throw Error::Unknown -text => $@;
}
finally
{
   Database::Disconnect($dbh);
   File::Close($fh);
};