diff --git a/src/interfaces/libpq/fe-exec.c b/src/interfaces/libpq/fe-exec.c
index 59121873d2..9afd4d88b4 100644
--- a/src/interfaces/libpq/fe-exec.c
+++ b/src/interfaces/libpq/fe-exec.c
@@ -1957,10 +1957,14 @@ PQisBusy(PGconn *conn)
 	parseInput(conn);
 
 	/*
-	 * PQgetResult will return immediately in all states except BUSY, or if we
-	 * had a write failure.
+	 * PQgetResult will return immediately in all states except BUSY.  Also,
+	 * if we've detected read EOF and dropped the connection, we can expect
+	 * that PQgetResult will fail immediately.  Note that we do *not* check
+	 * conn->write_failed here --- once that's become set, we know we have
+	 * trouble, but we need to keep trying to read until we have a complete
+	 * server message or detect read EOF.
 	 */
-	return conn->asyncStatus == PGASYNC_BUSY || conn->write_failed;
+	return conn->asyncStatus == PGASYNC_BUSY && conn->status != CONNECTION_BAD;
 }
 
 /*