Purple edges?

[Marie78]

My friend's orchid is shriveled and purple on the edges. Is there any saving it?

[rbarata]

A photo would be great. What kind of orchid is it?
Usually purple edges are the equivalent to tanning in humans. The plant segregates a pigment called anthocyanin (the equivalent to melanin in humans) to help it cope with high light levels. It is not a bad thing unless the light levels are too high, which can cause leaf burn.
Without a photo it might be just guessing but it seems you're giving the plant too much light.

[Marie78]

http://i.imgur.com/rNwkZ3q.jpg

[rbarata]

The purple edges as they are now are ok. The plant seems dehydrated.

BTW, your plant is a phalaenopsis (aka phal).

[estación seca]

The purple edges are OK for this orchid, a Phalaenopsis. They mean it is in bright light.

It's not getting enough water and is shriveling. There are two excellent threads here on how to take care of a Phalaenopsis orchid:

The Phal abuse ends here.

Using skewers to determine when to water

[Tindomul]

I just wanted to mention that the lack of water maybe due to a lack of watering or too much watering that may have killed off the roots.

[trdyl]

There seems to be some healthy roots on this one.