diff --git a/src/test/perl/PostgresNode.pm b/src/test/perl/PostgresNode.pm
index 9b712ebf306..bd627b29dee 100644
--- a/src/test/perl/PostgresNode.pm
+++ b/src/test/perl/PostgresNode.pm
@@ -1116,7 +1116,7 @@ sub psql
 			# IPC::Run::run threw an exception. re-throw unless it's a
 			# timeout, which we'll handle by testing is_expired
 			die $exc_save
-			  if (blessed($exc_save) || $exc_save ne $timeout_exception);
+			  if (blessed($exc_save) || $exc_save !~ /^\Q$timeout_exception\E/);
 
 			$ret = undef;