Phalaenopsis Roots Papery, Leaves Yellowing, Dropping

[Laneyzmom]

I’m new here and new to orchids. My daughter received an orchid as a gift. It’s doing very poorly. I repotted it back in September and it seemed to be doing OK until recently. The original planting medium was more of a mix of bark and moss than the new one. The new one was more bark. But I did keep the original material and added the bark mixture to it.

I didn’t know what to do when it started dropping leaves and read that I need to check out the root system. I took it out of its pot and found that the roots were dry and papery. There’s only 1 with any plumpness. There was no excess water, smell or anything to indicate root rot. I’ve been paranoid about over watering.

There was a post here from cherrypuff about root loss on 6/5/24 that I came across. But their issue was not the same as mine. But TMoney’s comment about attempting water culture seemed to make sense to me. Hoping this plant can come back. I’m open to other suggestions. Please help.