Why don't you either user the native Oracle client or the native Oracle ODBC driver? The first option would be best.

Can you have a timer in your program that times out if it doesn't get a response from the driver? Does someone have an interface coded for .NET to Oracle that will do the error checking for you?

There are many paths that you can go down to get a working and reliable interface. It's a question of doing the research. I'm guessing that no one who read your post really has the answer on how to deal with it.