Hi, jj. I would leave the keiki as is, and there are several reasons why, but the biggie and #1 is this:

Separated , it is a little thing, and in my experience little orchids are a pain in the humph. You have to keep a constant eye on them because they are tiny and delicate and in tiny pots that dry out quickly. Any mistake-- too dry for a day or so, or too wet, or too anything, and the little guys can just die on you.

So I would leave it on the mother, and let it get nourishment from her, and have a lot less trouble. It will keep growing, looking better all the time, and if the mother recovers you'll have a terrific big plant with two crowns, capable of putting up multi-spikes and looking glorious.

About the ugliness of the way the two are growing:

I'm not sure what the problem is aesthetically, with the mother leaning one way and the keiki leaning the other. A sunburned plant is plain ugly no matter which way it's growing. There's no cure for it, except new leaves appearing.

As the keiki gets bigger, the plant will look better. If the mother recovers, they should look just fine together like that. The sunburned mother is going to look ugly until she gets new leaves growing. If the crown was destroyed, the only way she can recover is thru keikis. However, if the crown is still there, she can still put out new leaves and recover her looks.

Hope this helps some.

Thank you! I will leave the keiki on. It's not so much that it's ugly as that I was concerned that the the whole thing will topple over. The plant is in a small (about 4"?) transparent plastic pot, which was why I was concerned about its stability. Since the keiki is growing in the opposite direction, you're right, as it grows it should even out.

Is there a way to tell if the crown of the mother is still OK? If it isn't, I'm guessing the sunburned leaves will just eventually drop on their own?

Thank you again!

jj, I burn some plants every spring. Unless the burn goes all the way thru and across the leaf, destroying it completely, the plant can still use it to some extent. The ugly leaves have to stay on til they fall off on their own, maybe a year or two later. It's a reminder to me to be more careful with sun :)

A burned plant does start to look better as soon as it starts to form new leaves, which thankfully cover the ugly old ones as they get big.

The crown is the center of the plant where the leaves form on either side. A phal grows from the crown-- that's where new leaves form. So as long as the crown is ok, the plant is ok and can make new leaves. How can you tell if it's ok? If the center of the plant is not gone as in destroyed, rotted, etc, it's ok.

Be sure to keep the center of the plant (ie the crown) dry to prevent rot.

jjj, when my smaller pots have a stability problem I put them inside another, heavier one. I hope something like that may help you.