This is simply my story. Choices I have made, things I have done. You may consider this an anecdote about silver from your friend 
When my daughter was about 7, she kept getting strep throat. She had taken all the antibiotics and it kept coming back. The doctor wanted to do a tonsillectomy. My wife and I did not want surgery done on our child, so we started looking at our options.
My father in law was a pharmacist and in his extensive library were his old textbooks. I began to search through them and came across the various forms that silver was used as an antibiotic. I knew about silver nitrate ointment, they had put it in my daughter's eyes at birth but I did not know about any other forms or uses for silver.
This was before the internet, or at least before the internet in my life. I did find instructions on a crude method for making it and we used it on my daughter.
Her recurrent strep throat went away, she has her tonsils to this day. Now I only use this method for a surface disinfectant or for the animals. It creates colloidal silver with large particles, and that CAN collect in the skin and turn people blue if they consume it. For external use, it is fine. If it is the only antibiotic you can get, blue is better than dead. I have three pregnant cows, so I will be making some over the next few days to keep on hand for birthing. There are techniques for making higher quality colloidal silver at home that I will go into in the future. For now I want to share the easiest, cheapest method.
I want to repeat, there IS a risk of turning blue if you consume this type of silver. When I want to take silver myself, I buy Sovereign Silver brand. That is just a brand I use and trust, not anyone who pays me for an endorsement. I will be upgrading my equipment soon, but I want people to know the "down and dirty" method for emergencies. I also ask people to read the package inserts on their antibiotics. They will find that there is a risk for anaphylactic allergic reactions to all antibiotics, and people can and do die from that reaction. Again, blue or dead? Your call.
It is CRITICAL that you use pure silver. If you need to buy silver, bullion is great although it will remove microscopic amounts. To be ethical, once you select bullion for medicine, do not try to use it for bullion again. I like to "buy local" even with my metal and really like Sunshine Mint with micro-engraved mint-mark.
Again, not a paid endorsement, but SilverDoctors.com has consistently had the best price I have found on silver for years. Wherever you get it, your silver MUST be 99.999% pure. Standard jewelry and old coins will NOT do! Use only pure bullion or extra-fine jeweler's wire!
In addition to silver (PURE silver!) you will also need three 9 volt batteries, two double ended alligator clips, a pyrex container and distilled water. Hook the batteries together (see photo below.) Hook your alligator clips to the leftover battery terminals and attach silver strips to open ends of alligator clips.
Securely suspend your silver wires so they hang into the container of distilled water.
They MUST NOT TOUCH. Left at room temperature, it should take about an hour before you notice the water is turning a faint golden color, indicating you are done.
As the reaction happens, a string of black crystals may start to build a bridge between the silver wires. Take a wooden or plastic spoon and stir gently to break that up, do NOT let it build up and connect your wires! You may gently heat the container to speed up the process.
We allowed a bit of precipitate to begin to form to get a picture. It will make our end product just a bit cloudier and more brown than golden but it is still fine for external use. Protect from light until use.
Many thanks to 
All images are my own.