Fuel Pump Blowout

My car has been such a great little car (thanks Sage), but lately it has been costing me lots of $$$. It is getting up there in km, but it's happening all at once. Apparantly, it is almost never heard of to blow out the fuel pump on my car, but the mechanic says that if it's fully drained or you drive it on empty too much it overheats. Why do we not learn about this???? I figure I'll just go to get gas less often as I have other things to do. So a lesson to myself and all you other non-car-mechanical people out there - don't drive on empty even if you know it will go for quite a while and are near lots of gas stations. The pump cost isn't worth it.