diff --git a/system/core/Loader.php b/system/core/Loader.php
index 5de2e5d..b316c8e 100644
--- a/system/core/Loader.php
+++ b/system/core/Loader.php
@@ -318,9 +318,9 @@
 	/**
 	 * Database Loader
 	 *
-	 * @param	string	the DB credentials
-	 * @param	bool	whether to return the DB object
-	 * @param	bool	whether to enable query builder (this allows us to override the config setting)
+	 * @param	mixed	$params = ''		the DB settings
+	 * @param	bool	$return = FALSE		whether to return the DB object
+	 * @param	bool	$query_builder = NULL	whether to enable query builder (overrides the config setting)
 	 * @return	object
 	 */
 	public function database($params = '', $return = FALSE, $query_builder = NULL)
@@ -329,7 +329,7 @@
 		$CI =& get_instance();
 
 		// Do we even need to load the database class?
-		if (class_exists('CI_DB') && $return === FALSE && $query_builder === NULL && isset($CI->db) && is_object($CI->db))
+		if ($return === FALSE && $query_builder === NULL && isset($CI->db) && is_object($CI->db) && ! empty($CI->db->conn_id))
 		{
 			return FALSE;
 		}
diff --git a/user_guide_src/source/changelog.rst b/user_guide_src/source/changelog.rst
index 92f6a03..ca46e9d 100644
--- a/user_guide_src/source/changelog.rst
+++ b/user_guide_src/source/changelog.rst
@@ -377,6 +377,7 @@
 -  Fixed a bug (#1766) - :doc:`Query Builder <database/query_builder>` didn't always take into account the *dbprefix* setting.
 -  Fixed a bug (#779) - :doc:`URI Class <libraries/uri>` didn't always trim slashes from the *uri_string* as shown in the documentation.
 -  Fixed a bug (#134) - :doc:`Database Caching <database/caching>` method ``delete_cache()`` didn't work in some cases due to *cachedir* not being initialized properly.
+-  Fixed a bug (#191) - :doc:`Loader Library <libraries/loader>` ignored attempts for (re)loading databases to ``get_instance()->db`` even when the old database connection is dead.
 
 Version 2.1.3
 =============