The sample was not quite right. The sub "dave" is a generic sub which calls a procedure with DBD::Oracle. The call to "dave" in the example does fail but what is missing from the example is that the catch also may call "dave" but with a different procedure name. This is closer:

use Try::Tiny;
use Log::Log4perl qw(get_logger :levels);
Log::Log4perl->init_and_watch('/etc/log4.conf', 60);
my $log = get_logger('Q::S');

fred();

sub fred
{
    my $x = try {
        # dave dies in the cases we get the panic
        dave('proc1', {}, 'arg1', 'arg2');
        0;
    } catch {
        my $ev = $_;
        if ($sometimes) { # sometimes goes this path and sometimes the
+ else
            eval {
                dave('proc2', {}, 'arg1', 'arg2');
                1;
            } or $log->warn("failed $@");
        } else {
            $log->logwarn("test $_");
        }
        1;
   };
   print "$x\n";
   return if $x;  # <---- this would be q.pl line 1895
}

sub dave
{
   # the following line would be DB.pm line 1380
   my ($sth, $options, @args) = @_;
}
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