PQstatus() detect change in connection...

Greetings,

PostgreSQL 7.1.3, FreeBSD-4.3-RELEASE, gcc 2.95.3

I'm trying to attempt to detect a failed backend connection, but a call to
PQstatus() always returns the state of the backend when the call was
made. For example, take this test code:

PGconn *pgConn;
PGresult *pgRes;
int fdPGconn;

int i = 0;
int iNewState = 0;
int iOldState = 60;

pgConn = PQconnectdb("dbname=pglogd user=postgres");

while ( i == 0 )
{
iNewState = PQstatus(pgConn);

if ( iNewState != iOldState )
{
iOldState = iNewState;
printf("Connection State [%d]\n", iNewState);

fdPGconn = PQsocket(pgConn);
printf("Connection Socket [%d]\n", fdPGconn);
}

sleep(1);
}

PQfinish(pgConn);

If you start this with the backend running, the status is CONNECTION_OK,
then pull the plug on the backend, the call to PQstatus() will still return
CONNECTION_OK, even though the backend is not running. Start this program
with the backend not running, then start the backend, PQstatus() never sees
the backend come to life...

Am I reading PQstatus() wrong? Is there any way to detect when the backend
goes down or comes back up?

Thanks,
Matthew