Best debt relief program options after my medical bills got out of hand

So I've been lurking here for a while trying to figure out what to do. I'm a warehouse supervisor and I thought I had everything under control but then I had a pretty serious kidney infection last year that turned into a hospital stay. I have insurance but the deductible plus the bills I couldn't cover just wrecked me.

I ended up putting about $14,000 on two different credit cards to cover the gaps and some of my regular bills while I was out of work for three weeks. My credit was already sitting around 570 before all this so getting a consolidation loan was a no go... I tried two places and got denied both times.

I looked into a debt management plan and the monthly payment they quoted me was still more than I could swing on top of rent and everything else. My credit score dropped another 20 points because I missed two payments in the last six months.

I really want to avoid bankruptcy if I can. My brother went through it and it followed him around for years, even had issues getting a second job when he needed one. So I started looking into debt settlement and I just want to know if there's actually a good debt relief program out there or if they're all kind of the same.