How do I settel with Captiol One?

My wife went into end stage renal failure last year and the medical bills starting overwhelming us. I could not make the payments on her capitol one credit card and asked them to please close the account so I would not aculate further fees, they refused. Now the card is in collestions and they have added a total of 1058.00 in fees. I called them and they said it is out of their control now that it has been turned over to collections. How do I get these fees removed, they are completely unwilling to work with me.