My wife has a college friend whose life is a complete wreck. One of her feet started hurting about 4 years ago, and her health just went into a nosedive.
When she went to the podiatrist, the elevator door malfunctioned and her crushed other foot. At first she was still able to get around on crutches, but something else happened and the only way for her to get around was to crawl. Somehow that caused vertigo so she even stopped doing that.
Her husband's a piece of shit who isn't taking care of her or their kid (currently in kinder). He's not out drinking or whoring around, but he's completely checked out of his marriage and responsibility as a dad, leaving the kid doing whatever until after midnight. The kid hardly spent any time outdoors until he went to TK because mom couldn't leave the house, and dad didn't want to take him either.
Wife's friend thinks she's a terrible mother, and tries to do stuff for the kid, but any time she tries to do something, she gets hurt even more. When my wife visited her today, her friend was wearing a neck brace because she mysteriously injured it, her right hand was hurting, she wore depends because her POS husband isn't around to take her to the toilet, and she shaved her because there's no way for her to reach up and wash.
In the past year, she moved in with her dad because she needed to focus on her health, and not be weighed down with worry and depression. But her dad is also a POS and not taking care of her daughter. Her in-laws are in town, and will take care of the kid only if needed, but aren't thrilled with him spending any more time with him.
Also, my wife comes from a family of hoarders, so she knows clutter. So when she said she couldn't stand the clutter at her friend's house, I can't even imagine what that looks like.
Anyway, my unsolicited advice, if I saw her, would be to get herself to a place where she could recover, do some physical and emotional therapy, and go back to being a great mom after she's healthy. I'd also be tempted to just call CPS and have the kid taken away. I know it sounds terrible, but not having to worry about taking care of the kid 24/7 might give her time to heal her body, or at least not make it worse. I don't know what happens to a kid once CPS steps in, so I'm just spitballing here, but a few months/years in a foster home might even be better than seeing his mom like this and dad not giving a shit. But what do I know, I'm just a judgmental asshole who thinks my shit doesn't stink.