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 = 'd177df1e9a9be9011ee9169e7ca7dce8'

[XT SQL Error]