She will be admitted to a long term care facility following surgery in a few weeks. Once she's there, they will intercept her income (SSA & retirement) for cost of care. Do the credit cards get discharged? I have to start calling the debtors. She was so prideful about her bills/credit.
So mom will continue to have her income for at least 20 days.
Aren't you the one who would like for mom to buy a house so that you all can move in & you become her caregiver? If so, moms needs to be paying at least her minimal on her credit cards & other debt as mom needs to have her credit score look current.
As Windy wrote, debt doesn't disappear. If mom defaults on it, and walks away, the original creditor will eventually write it off. But if this is credit card debt, mom can expect to get a 1099-C Cancellation of debt on the amount plus interest & fees eventually from the OC. The 1099-C is taxable income and reported to the IRS. Mom will have to file taxes and do an IRS 982 Reduction of Tax to get her insolvent so no taxes due - thus is pretty specialized filing too so needs a tax pro to do it.. It can't be ignored as the IRS can attach her SS and any other retirement income as they are a supercreditor.
Taurean - based on your posts you seem kinda overwhelmed and casting about to try to find a solution. Really if you can, gather all of moms financial info together along with those co-signed college loans she did for granddaughter and go see an eider law attorney. Really mom is kinda young (72?) and she & you could have a couple more decades together. You want to get the best options to do things that won't bite either of you on the butt later on....like having the IRS or state or federal tax authorities attaching her income due to avoidable bad decisions done in a panic right now.