A Melbourne woman allowed her mother to be eaten alive by maggots and left her dying on a floor surrounded by her own waste, a court has heard.

Kateryna Pyrczak's St Albans house allegedly smelt like a "rotting corpse" when she was discovered by paramedics lying on her kitchen floor with gangrenous legs on November 10 last year.

Police allege the 72-year-old's right leg was gangrenous from knee to foot and was being eaten by maggots and her body was covered in ulcers.

Ms Pyrczak was rushed to the Western General Hospital but died from multiple organ failure and septicemia later that night.

The case has shocked medical professionals, reducing nurses to tears.