Error Handling with very basic SQL query

Hi Guys,

I have built this simple code which uses a specific database configuration and then runs SELECT query on the EMPLOYEE table.
This table has very huge database and I believe because of that, the db is throwing error. Which is fine.  
Below is my code. I have done the error handling code in this but it still throws attached error on browser. I want it to suppress throwing error on browser and catch it into variable so I can display it properly. Because I would like to use this code for an API server.

Ignore the part where the code is commented for $DB_MYSQL. That is for future use, I am going to switch database on specific occassions.

PHP Code:

$DB_MSSQL = $this->load->database('mssql_db', TRUE);
$DB_MSSQL->db_debug = FALSE;

//$DB_MYSQL = $this->load->database('mysql_db', TRUE);
//$DB_MYSQL->db_debug = FALSE;

$sql = "SELECT * from EMPLOYEES";
$result =  $DB_MSSQL->query($sql);

echo $sql.'<hr/>';

if($result){
 $row = $result->result_array();
 
 $count=1;
 foreach($row as $record){
 echo "[ $count ] ";
 var_dump($record);
 echo '<hr/>';
 $count++;
 
 ob_flush(); flush();
 }
}
else{
 $error = $DB_MSSQL->_error_message();
 var_dump($error);
}