basic connection pooling question

[bart zagers]

Hey,
I'm new to JDBC and I am looking at a connection pooling mechanism. OnCore Servlets
I found a basic implementation.
But in ConnectionPool.getConnection() I see

public synchronized Connection getConnection()
      throws SQLException {
    if (!availableConnections.isEmpty()) {
      Connection existingConnection =
        (Connection)availableConnections.lastElement();
      int lastIndex = availableConnections.size() - 1;
      availableConnections.removeElementAt(lastIndex);
      // If connection on available list is closed (e.g.,
      // it timed out), then remove it from available list
      // and repeat the process of obtaining a connection.
      // Also wake up threads that were waiting for a
      // connection because maxConnection limit was reached.
      if (existingConnection.isClosed()) {
        notifyAll(); // Freed up a spot for anybody waiting        ($$$$)
        return(getConnection());
      } else {
        busyConnections.addElement(existingConnection);
        return(existingConnection);
      }
    } else {
      
      // Three possible cases:
      // 1) You haven't reached maxConnections limit. So
      //    establish one in the background if there isn't
      //    already one pending, then wait for
      //    the next available connection (whether or not
      //    it was the newly established one).
      // 2) You reached maxConnections limit and waitIfBusy
      //    flag is false. Throw SQLException in such a case.
      // 3) You reached maxConnections limit and waitIfBusy
      //    flag is true. Then do the same thing as in second
      //    part of step 1: wait for next available connection.
      
      if ((totalConnections() < maxConnections) &&
          !connectionPending) {
        makeBackgroundConnection();
      } else if (!waitIfBusy) {
        throw new SQLException("Connection limit reached");
      }
      // Wait for either a new connection to be established
      // (if you called makeBackgroundConnection) or for
      // an existing connection to be freed up.
      try {
        wait();
      } catch(InterruptedException ie) {}
      // Someone freed up a connection, so try again.
      return(getConnection());
    }
  }  

that Connection.isClosed() is used (see ($$$$))with a comment that it returns true if the connection has timed out.
I assume this is wrong (based on the java documentation), but how should I replace this test if I want that my method returns an open connection?