2013 - Lost connection to MySQL server during query

select specials_id from specials where status = '1' and now() >= expires_date and expires_date > 0

[XT SQL Error]

2006 - MySQL server has gone away

select count(*) as total from sessions where sesskey = 'ca9b94e12868adedab2f3c6982c6200c'

[XT SQL Error]